A full weekend of racing on the Medina last weekend brought the Hants and Dorset season to a close. A shortened season due to Covid meant crews were still fighting for championships points, which brought a bumper entry into the draw. 250 competitors for the Fours racing on Saturday, and another 150 for juniors and small boats on Sunday.
Junior Men’s Four
Success came to the home club on Saturday as Newport’s Junior Men’s Four of Matt Swiss, Toby Batchelor, Ollie Coulson and Luke Knight coxed by Emily Faithfull won their event.
Despite the disadvantage of having to qualify through an extra round of heats and racing the 1,500m course three times in under three hours they had the strength to see off an equally powerful crew from BTC, winning an exciting race by a canvas.
Men’s Senior scull
Matt Swiss brought home the Men’s Senior scull for Newport on Sunday with a strong performance to also beat BTC. However BTC got their own back in the Men’s Junior Pairs event where the home crew and hot favourites of Ollie Coulson and Toby Batchelor came up short at the finish by half a length.
Looking to make a clean sweep
The Newport crew were looking to make a clean sweep of this event on their home course, having won all six races in the season so far.
A close race all the way down the course saw BTC and Newport vying for the lead. Despite giving everything they had, Newport couldn’t pull back the half a length BTC had over them on the line.
Image: L-R Matt Swiss, Toby Batchelor, Emily Faithfull, Ollie Coulson and Luke Knight.
News shared by Julie Clarke on behalf of Newport Rowing Club. Ed
