Scottish Championships 2023 – Women’s Sweep Preview

With the weather looking flat and hot this weekend, Scottish Rowing have perfect conditions for the Scottish Championships. With this event being a qualifying event for being able to represent Scotland at Home International Regatta, plenty of girls will be wanting to show off their speed this weekend. We see some strong competition in the sweep categories from across Scotland, so the regatta will be incredibly exciting to watch.

Women’s Eights

First we have the Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association eight, with a mixture of juniors in this eight it is interesting that they have entered the championship category. As there is no junior eight category, they would always have to race up, but clearly they have some speed behind them. 

Next we have Edinburgh University Boat Club, a well known high-performance centre, however, their top eights from the mens and women’s squads are racing at Metropolitan Regatta this weekend, meaning this is the second eight. That doesn’t mean, however, they will be any less competitive. Some of these girls such as Isla MacCallum and Charlotte Cooper are also doubling up in some sculling events with other crew members.

Aberdeen University Boat Club and Robert Gordon University Boat Club have put a composite crew together, and many of these girls are racing in the sculling categories too such as Laura Stewart and Morgan Nunez along with crew-mates.

Women’s Coxed Fours

Edinburgh University Boat Club have a hefty four boats entered into this category, however, some look as though they hail from the impressive novice programme that Mike Hughes is leading there. It also looks as though the Edinburgh eight has been split into two to potentially make two matched fours. As these girls will constantly train together, the pressure will be even higher to perform to their maximum.

Glasgow University Boat Club have a crew entered, having completed some solid winter training and having raced at Inverness Head in November, these ladies will be well used to rowing together and getting maximum speed out of the boat.

St Andrews University Boat Club have two boats entered, showing the depth of the squad. Some names we see popping up in the eights category and others besides.

Finally, Aberdeen University Boat Club have two composite crews entered. One boat with Robert Gordon University Boat Club, the other with Strathclyde Park. Again, we see some similar names to many of the sculling categories along with the other sweep events at this weekends regatta.

Women’s Coxless Fours

Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club have a strong coxless four entered to compete against two Edinburgh University crews and two Aberdeen University composite crews. Much like in the coxed fours, Edinburgh have one four from their novice programme and one senior four, again with such names like Isla MacCallum who have recently won silver at the World Beach Sprints Championships.

Aberdeen University Boat Club and Robert Gordon University, along with the Aberdeen University and Strathclyde Park composite, have a similar boat to that entered into the coxed fours category. This makes sense as it allows for an extra race with no extra cost to changing crews of boat class. However, it does mean these ladies will already be able to guess the outcome of the events given the previous races.

Women’s Pairs

For the pairs category we have an impressive eleven crews entered. Two from Aberdeen Boat Club, one of which is a composite with Strathclyde Park. This composite contains Catriona Bain and Merven Thomson, both of which have seen international level racing and will set up a quick pair. Aberdeen University have two crews entered one of which is a composite with Robert Gordon University.

Edinburgh have an impressive four pairs entered into this category. It looks as though the two coxless fours have been split into pairs, this means two of these pairs are novice, and the other two are more experienced seniors on the main high performance programme. Finally, Glasgow have two pairs entered.

I believe, Edinburgh will have a strong standing across all these categories. The Aberdeen Boat Club and Strathclyde Park composite pair will be one to watch, however all of these will be followed closely by Glasgow University and St Andrews University. Overall, it’ll make for incredible racing to watch and participate in.

Best of luck ladies!

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