By Isle of Wight Observer
Ryde rowing club entered a “Women’s Four” in a national virtual “lockdown Regatta” over the weekend of Saturday 23rd to Sunday 24th May, 2020.
The virtual competition was organised by students from De Montfort University and Bath Spa University rowing clubs who wanted to help raise money for the NHS in these challenging times.
Because not everyone had access to an ergo people were asked to run 2km rather than row, but the format was that of national rowing events. The first round required all competitors to race a time trial, which was used to seed 6-lane ABCD finals on the Sunday. Crews were allowed, with the times from each individual being averaged to determine the overall time. This Regatta had 21 unique events with 195 crews competing across 236 races. There were 58 visiting clubs/ schools with a total of 591 athletes competing.
The Ryde Crew of Niamh Murphy, Poppy Starkey, Freya Drage and Emily Davis finished 9th in their time trial on the Saturday and 2nd in their “B” Final – 9th overall in their Final on the Sunday.
