News

Posted: 21st April 2013

Inverness' Imogen Walsh won today's GB Rowing Team trial, justifying her pre-event tag as favourite in the lightweight women's category, to set the mood for the Scottish contingent at the Redgrave-Pinsent Rowing Lake in Caversham, Reading. The 29-year-old, a world champion in 2011 in the lightweight women's quad scull, was an emphatic winner after building a strong lead through the middle of the race, finishing ahead of Ruth Walczak and early challenger Eleanor Piggott.

Read more: Walsh leads Scots at GB Trials

Three Scots are racing at the World Rowing Cup in Sydney from 22nd-24th March.  Polly Swann (George Heriots School RC/Edinburgh University BC) will race in the Women's pair and eight.  Alan Sinclair (Inverness RC/Aberdeen BC) will race in the Men's coxless four. Imogen Walsh (Inverness RC/Glasgow University BC/Clyde ARC) has been selected for the Women's lightweight double scull, having won her event at the February GB Trials.

Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen have appointed a full-time professional High Performance Rowing Coach to nurture and support the next generation of rowing talent for Scotland and Great Britain. Supported by Scottish Rowing and sportscotland, the Aberdeen Head of Performance Rowing will be responsible for leading on the day-to-day coaching and training programme with a focus on identifying and developing talented athletes to an Under 23 international standard. 34-year-old Michael Hughes arrives in Aberdeen following a hugely successful 3 years coaching at Newcastle University, one of the leading rowing programmes in the country, where he had specific responsibility for recruitment and talent development.

Read more: Aberdeen’s universities invest in High Performance Rowing Coach

Roz Savage holds four world records for ocean rowing, including first woman to row three oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian. She has rowed over 15,000 miles, taken around 5 million oarstrokes, and spent cumulatively over 500 days of her life at sea in a 23-foot rowboat.

Read more: Rower Roz Savage to share her story in talks around Scotland

Two Castle Semple members who are proposing to row the length of the Thames in order to raise funds for British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, which is a charity which promotes research into the eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa, RP. RP affects the light receptors at the back of the eye causing them to die off which in turn results in creeping blindness because light signals do not reach the brain from the retina. John McKinney, who is one of Scottish Rowing's much loved umpires is joining fellow Lifelong Castle Semple Rowing club member David McMillan who suffers from this condition in this adventure.

Read more: Castle Semple Thames Row