Happy Easter everyone! Here’s hoping you all stuffed your faces with copious amounts of chocolate, devoured those hot cross buns, and thoroughly enjoyed the long weekend. For a small group of Tigers, these goals were achieved during a fantastic road trip to Mildura to compete at the Wentworth Mildura Easter Regatta.
Congratulations to all competitors – it was a wonderful weekend of racing! For those of you who missed out on this weekend of fun, here’s the 411 to catch you up…
The 7 hours’ drive to Mildura was…a challenge. The backseat snack patrol has never been more important! But in amongst the endlessly straight roads and the multiple loops over the same Spotify playlists, we managed a few stops along to way to take in the sights – silo art, anyone?
Racing took place over Saturday and Sunday, with 1000m and 500m races respectively. As a club, we raced in 18 events – pretty impressive for a small contingent! We took home the gold for:
- Female Masters Coxed Four (1000m)
- Male C Grade Single (1000m)
- Female C Grade Coxed Four (1000m)
- Male Masters Single Scull – Division 2 (1000m)
- Female C Grade Coxed Quad Scull (500m)
- Female Masters Coxed Quad Scull (500m)
- Male Masters Single Scull – Division 1 (500m)
And while the jingle jangle of medals around our necks was a nice touch, this weekend was all about having fun at a wholesome country regatta. So in that spirit, I wanted to call out a few of the highlights…
A massive congratulations is in order for Yennie – she competed in a single for the first time, representing Richmond in the Female Under 17 Single Scull. She looked fierce taking out second place in the heat and dealt with the curvy course like a pro!
In a first for many in the boat, we competed in a Mixed Quad and came third – not to toot our own horn, but I’d say this is quite impressive for a scratch crew. And what’s more impressive is that we all managed to keep up with Emil, setting a cracking rate of 500…ok ok it was only 38, but still!
Other highlights included Phil repping Richmond in a race against the Phils, i.e. the Div. 3 Male Masters Single Scull that was surreally populated with 90% Phils. And Charlotte absolutely loved her time in the cox’s seat for the Female Coxed Quad Scull – she walked away bone dry after ensuring that we definitely stayed in our lane.
All in all, this was an incredibly successful and fun weekend. We can’t thank Wentworth and Mildura Rowing Clubs enough for their hospitality and for hosting a fantastic weekend of rowing.
But none of this would’ve been possible without all the behind-the-scenes work. Thanks to Leigh and Chris for towing the trailer all the way to Mildura! And thanks to Sarah and Chris for organizing and submitting entries.
So that’s a wrap on the 100th Easter Regatta in Mildura! I say we get an even bigger group of Tigers together for the 101st…who’s with me!?