By Isle of Wight Observer
The three Island rowing clubs combined to run the first time trial on the River Medina of 2025 in calm conditions that were perfect for rowing.
Division One, over the 3,400m distance, was rowed against the tide. The fastest men’s time of the day of 15m 34s came from the Newport coxless four. The best performance across the men’s crews, in terms of percentage of gold medal standard, came from Ryde’s coxed four, at 64 per cent, just beating the Newport crew by 1 per cent. Newport’s Novice Women were the quickest women’s crew, in a time of 18m 30s.
Division Two was rowed with the tide, and over the shorter 1,750m (1.1 mile) distance. The fastest men’s time of the day was posted by Ryde’s J-16 youngsters, rowing a coxed quad in a time of 6m 44s. The fastest women’s crew was Shanklin Masters, rowing a coastal four in a time of 7m 14s. The best performance of the day in terms of percentage of gold medal place went to Charlie Watts of Ryde, who sculled the second division course in 6m 52s, 82 per cent of gold medal standard.
Other outstanding sculling performances came from Shanklin Masters sculler, Simon Nevitt, who achieved 78 per cent of gold medal pace, and Connie Batley-Smith, a J-14 sculler, who achieved 79 per cent of gold medal pace.