Gold Medal at the British Rowing Masters Championships
Ralph Pickles, PolyPhotonix Chairman, took part in the The British Rowing Masters Championships held on 11th and 12th June 2016. This competition is the UK championships for Masters – defined as rowers over 27 years of age and is held at the National Watersports’ Centre at Holme Pierrepoint near Nottingham – the UK’s first purpose built Olympic standard 2,000 m course.
Races are run in boat types as at the Olympics and in age bands. In Ralph’s age band, his team took gold in the 4x- (coxless quads).
Medals were awarded to winners as in the Olympics although as it’s a much bigger event there is a medal pontoon rather than an out-of-boat ceremony. There were 883 entries this year and competition was strong.
The other crews in Ralph’s race were Runcorn (2nd place), a composite of three: Guildford, Eton and Southend (3rd place), and Bradford (4th place).
Ralph’s crew finished in 3.43.21, which was faster than the winning time in last year’s World Masters. The time for the first 500 metres was 1.42 and the second 500 (when they knew they had the race) was 2.01. Ralph said “We reckon we could have gone 10 seconds faster. It’s all in the rhythm and timing – and this team does go well together.”
Congratulatons and best of luck for next year, Ralph! We want to see more gold medals!