National Championships, Nottingham. 18/19/20 July 2008

Crews from Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club also attended the National Championships held in Nottingham over the weekend and were also faced with bad conditions. A very heavy head wind slowed racing times drastically and in some cases caused crews to stop dead.

Hampshire and Mollison in their double came 3rd in the heat and were drawn against two top Leander crews,  although fighting hard for a place in the final the two Leander crews came first and second. Hampshire and Mollison could still secure a place in the final by racing in the rep. The Maidstone crew had a very close, nail biting race and came second place by less than a second but nevertheless secured their place in the final.

The Maidstone crew knew they had to push hard in the final having met many of the opposition in the heats, they knew exactly what they were up against. After a good strong start the Maidstone double blasted off in second place out of six crews but the other crews slowly took water off Hampshire and Mollison and left them in last place 750m into the race. Not being phased the crew stuck to their race plan and by 1000m they had pulled back to 4th place, with 250m remaining the Maidstone crew powered for the finish and finished a very respectable 4th place.
All crews that have raced recently at Veterans Henley and National Championships proudly represented Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club and helped put Maidstone on the map.

Kate Beaumont