News

Posted: 31 July 2024

The Home International Rowing Regatta is amongst the most anticipated events of the year. It was Scotland’s turn to host, and for the 15^th time, the event took place at Strathclyde Country Park, where we welcomed around 300 athletes and coaches from across the four nations.

Team England enjoyed another strong regatta, retaining each of the four team events, however this was no easy feat with the Scotland Rowing Team making them work hard for it, finishing only 3 points behind in both the Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s team events.

Ben Parsonage (CARC) brought home Scotland’s first medal in the Men’s Lightweight Single Scull, with more than a 20 second victory over his opponents. Ben has had a fantastic season with wins in the Lightweight Men’s 1x at the British Championships, Scottish Championships and the European University Rowing Championships not to mention many other notable performances both domestically and internationally.

There were medals all round for the Scotland Para-Athletes. The second gold for Scotland was won by Jake Woods (SPRC) in the Men’s PR1 single scull. Jake recently made his GB debut at the World Rowing Cup 3 in June, where he finished 5^th overall. Straight off the back of her win at Henley Women’s Regatta, Samantha-Louise Gough (SABC) took the win in the 500m Women’s PR3 Single Scull. As a blind athlete Samantha was steered down the course using a radio and headset by GB Rowing Paralympic Pathway Coach, Will Stockton. Captain of the Senior Men’s Squad, Colin Wallace (URA) took home the win in the 500m race for PR3 Men’s Singles. This was Colin’s seventh time representing Scotland at the HIRR and first since 2011, when he had won the men’s pair.

The women’s team came out to play in the sweep events taking wins in the Coxless Four, Pair and Eight (2km). One of the most exciting races of the day saw the Scotland women’s 8+ come out on top over England, a margin of just under 2 seconds separating them over 2000m. Unfortunately, the tables were turned in England’s favour for the 500m event, with an even closer margin of 0.49 seconds between the two crews!

The Men continued the legacy in the Coxless Fours and Eight (2km) as they battled with England to take the win in both events. Again, just falling short of the 500m win in the eight by the smallest of margins, the final event of the day was without a doubt one of the most exciting of the day with less than 5 seconds between all four crews.

The Junior Squads, captained by Oliver Plank (TGA) and Rebecca Harrison (SABC), competed well considering that more than 75% of the team were competing at HIRR for the first time and 35% of the team being in the J16 age category.

Scotland Rowing Team Manager, Graeme Cunningham, said; “It is great to have so many young people getting the chance to compete at HIRR for the first time. We are in such an exciting transition period as we are working with many younger (J16) athletes, it is fantastic that they are being given these opportunities early. It gives us the time to work with them more closely over the next couple of years to develop into, what I am sure will be, a very strong team.”

Off the water, there was lots of hard work going on behind the scenes from our volunteers and staff.  Events of this scale cannot be run without the help of volunteers from manning the stake boats, helping with timing, assisting in the medal presentations (including the raising of the flags), working in race control and umpiring the races. Thank you to all those who put in the effort both before and during the event to help support us. A huge thank you goes out to the North Lanarkshire Council team who set up the course, drove launches for the umpires and provided safety cover. We are grateful to them for their continued support of our events at Strathclyde Park, thank you!

On the Friday evening, before the event, Scottish Rowing hosted a dinner for some of the travelling delegates including Team Managers, Umpires, Event Officials and the HIR General Management Committee (GMC). We also welcomed North Lanarkshire Council’s Deputy Provost, Bob Burgess, and his wife who were delighted to be part of the festivities. The dinner also featured the presentation of the Griffiths Family Trophy. This is awarded, at the discretion of the GMC, to an individual who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the development of Home International Rowing. The recipient of this year’s award was the late Jo Pinder. Jo had been a mainstay of events at Strathclyde Park for many years and was integral to the delivery of the Home International Rowing Regatta in Scotland, being ‘at home’ at race control in the finish tower. Jo was a wonderful person with a wicked sense of humour and a huge heart, she is missed by all the team at Scottish Rowing and indeed across the wider rowing family. Scottish Rowing President, Alistair Neill was there to accept the award on Jo’s behalf.

Overall, another successful Home International Rowing Regatta, both on and off the water. We now hand the baton over to Welsh Rowing for the 2025 Regatta, not before we send a team to the 2024 HIR Beach Sprints which will be hosted by England in Bournemouth on 28^th September.