The bragging rights for The North of England Sprint Rowing Championships 2009, held by Hollingworth Lake Row ing Club on Hollingworth Lake, Littleborough, go to Liverpool Victoria who return to Merseyside with the Senior Victor Ladorum prize of £1000 for the second year in succession. Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club, although not eligible for the prize money finished as runners up.

The Junior prize of £750 went to Queens Park High School of Chester, our congratulations go to all who took part and made it such a great Sprint Championships once again.

Action from the North of England Sprint Rowing Championships

The Sprint Championships, organised by Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club have become one of the largest in the Country, this year was no exception as crews from as far afield as Cambridge to Newcastle competed in over 11 hours of racing in 71 different categories, from Junior 13 to Veteran G, (Veteran G competitors are in the age range of 65 -70 years) and from elite to veteran novice crews.

The race of the day had to be between Mr Jones of York City Veteran G. (65-70 age range) and Mr Pickles of Tees Rowing Club Veteran F. (60-65 age range) Mr Jones from York City coming out on top in a competitive race.

Both Manchester & Salford University powered through their heats to reach the final of the IM3 4+ with Manchester University taking the honours over their close rivals.

Callum Boardman Hollingworth Lake Novice 1 x Winner with Tankard

There were the coveted men’s novice single scull wins for Callum Boardman of Hollingworth Lake and Agecroft’s Rosy Klinkenberg took the women’s prize. Th e event was attended by the Mayor & Mayoress of Rochdale, Councillor Keith Swift and Sue Etchells and Littleborough Councillor Pauline Maguire who all commented that it was a fantastic event for the area.

The Mayor & Mayoress of Rochdale present Agecroft Klinkenberg with her Novice Tankard

The day started out cold, wet and misty but that didn’t dampen the spirits of all involved, including the club members and parents who made the event possible by giving up their day to help out and competitors who continue to make the North of England Sprint Rowing Championships the best in the Country. With special thanks to the Sailing Club, The Water Activity Centre, Littleborough Rugby Club, Littleborough Police and the Sea Cadets for their support throughout the day.

We look forward to our next events, the English Indoor Rowing Championships 2010 at the National Cycling Centre (NCC) in Manchester and the North of England Sprint Rowing Championships 2010, held on Hollingworth Lake.

Lake Rowers compete at International Events.

Last weekend Stuart Sykes was part of the Team England competing in the Home International against teams from Scotland, Wales and Ireland at the national Watersports Centre in Nottingham. He was racing over 2,000 metres in the single sculls and with a partner in the double sculls. In the doubles he and his partner were dominant and led the race from the off to win Gold by a 10 second margin. In the singles he found the competition a little bit stiffer and even though he battled valiantly he was beaten into fourth place, the difference between winning and fourth was less then 4 seconds. The points that Stuart contributed to the team meant that the England Juniors won the Duncan Trophy by 2 points from the Irish and the England Team won the event overall.

Stuart Sykes

Ruth Walczak was the second Hollingworth rower to be representing her country in the World U23 Championships held at Racice in the Czech Republic. She was competing in the strokes seat of the coxless fours. Their first heat was the semifinal which they won putting them straight through to the final. On reflection Ruth would have liked to have been in the repercharge to enable the crew to get more racing experience before the final. In the final this lack of racing experience, the crew only having been put together 3 weeks before the event, was a deciding factor and they missed out on a medal by less than 2 seconds and the Gold by 6 seconds. The women’s eight won the Gold beating the USA, Poland and Canada. As a little consolation Ruth has been asked to seat race for this Women’s eight to compete in the European Championships to be held in Brest, France during September. We wish Ruth every success in getting into this crew.

Ruth Walczak

Report on Hollingworth Lake rowers success at the National Championships.

Medal winners at the National Great Britain Rowing Championships.

Hollingworth Lake rowers picked up 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze medals at the National Championships held at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham last weekend. On Friday 13years old junior Jess Leyden won the semi-final of the Womens Junior 14 single sculls event by a massive 20 seconds to progress straight to the final on Saturday. In the final she extended her lead to 28sec to take the Gold medal in magnificent style leaving the opposition in her wake. Well done Jess, who now looks set for a golden future in rowing.

Jess Leydan

Next up was the Women’s Junior double scull in which Rachel Flanders was teamed up with an Agecroft athlete. Rachel at 17 had been the youngest person to row the Atlantic in 2007. This was a very different race, in the semi-final they kept close to the leaders Nottingham finishing second by 2 seconds yet feeling comfortable. The final on the Sunday was more difficult, Notingham and Henley both got off to a fast start and led by a couple of lengths by the 500 metre mark Rachel and Olivia held on through the middle 1000 and put in a huge effort over the last 500 but were unable to make up the deficit but claiming the bronze medal. A valiant effort considering they had only been training together for 2 weeks.

Stuart Sykes

Stuart Sykes was competing in the Men’s junior single sculls and the men’s junior double with an athlete from Evesham. In the singles Stuart won his heat to go straight to the final by some 7 seconds, the final was a close race and he battled very hard with a sculler from Leicester who just took the gold by a small margin Stuart taking the silver medal. In the Double sculls Stuart and his partner were dominant right through the three races winning by margins of 12secs, 6secs and the final by 4secs to take the Gold medal in fine style. As a consequence of these wins Stuart has been selected to represent England in the Home Internationals as the junior single and double sculler against Scotland Wales and Ireland. This event will be held at Nottingham on Saturday the 26th July.

Also competing was junior 16 sculler Andy Jepson who won through the time trials, won his semi-final and came 5th in the final. Lucy Walczak rowing as Molesey won a bronze medal in open womens single sculls and came 4th in the Under 23 womens sculls. Craig Morgan rowing in an Agecroft eight also won a bronze medal.

All in a very encouraging performance from a little Club based on a Lake nestled in the Pennines.

Success for Hollingworth Rowers at Henley Royal Regatta.

Three Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club athletes achieved various successes at this year’s Henley Royal Regatta. In the Remenham Challenge Cup for Elite Women’s Eights Ruth Walczak rowing in the National Under 23 women’s crew under the banner of Molesey/Leander won their first race against Oxford Brookes University to progress to the semi-finals. Here they met the GB Women’s Senior Eight and despite a brave effort were beaten by 2lengths. The Senior crew went on to beat Yale University of America in the final.

Stuart Sykes who has been training with the GB Junior Squad was invited to row in a composite Quad Sculling boat with boys from Leander and Evesham. Stuart had spent the last two weeks training with the crew based at Leander Club the high temple of rowing. The crew had previously come third at Marlow Regatta two weeks previously so were looking for a good result in The Fawley Challenge Cup event for Junior 18 boys. In their first race they beat Sir William Borlaise/Maidenhead quite comfortably. They were again triumphant in the quarter finals against Sydney Rowing Club Australia. The semifinal saw them racing a strong crew from Melbourne Grammar School and despite a very close race which was nip and tuck all the way down the course they were beaten by half a length. Melbourne were beaten in the final by Westminster School. Stuart enjoyed the experience tremendously and is looking forward to competing in the final National Junior trials at which the GB teams for the World Junior Championships and European Junior Championships will be selected. These events take place in the month of August.

The crew is : Bow-Stuart Sykes (Hollingworth), 2-L.Moon(Leander), 3-J.Sullivan(Evesham) and Stoke-T.Chung(Peterborough).

The third member of the Club, Craig Morgan was competing in the Britannia Challenge Cup which is a coxed fours event for Club Rowers. Craig was rowing in the bow seat of a crew from Agecroft. They beat a York City crew in their first race and went on to overcome Molesey, then Fermoy from Ireland to reach the final. The final was against Vesta who are a Tideway Club based at Putney in London. The race proved to be a tough one, at the barrier Agecroft held a 1 second lead, at Fawley the gap was 2 seconds and both crews still had all to play for. Agecroft managed to resist a strong final push from Vesta to come out winners by 2.5 seconds. A magnificent effort from both crews and Agecroft the worthy winners.