At this year’s World Masters Regatta Stratford upon Avon was represented in different classes by Tom Doherty, Pete Spivey, Ellie Davis, Gina Fusco and Kjersti Rogneflaten-Woolley. Club members Dan Simkins and Suzie Radley were also attending the regatta but competing for Upper Thames Rowing Club in Henley.

There were more than 4,700 competitors at the event which was held between the 9th and 13th of September. Fifty one countries were represented from 860 clubs with 981 races over the 1000m course across the five days. For those who have never been to Lake Bled, it is one of Slovenia’s famous tourist destinations but also the home of Slovenian rowing and regular international rowing events. The World Masters being the largest.

It is common at these regattas for small clubs like Stratford to team up with other small clubs and compete in more events, using boats from a few clubs to make logistics easier. These entries are called composite boats or international entries if more than one country is represented.

There can be up to 200 entries into some of the categories and so each category is split into heats with eight lanes racing side by side. The winners of each heat are then classed as World Masters and receive their world championship medals after the finish. Each heat is highly competitive and athletes can range from 27 years of age to, this year, 92. Athletes compete against athletes of similar age.

Overall, Stratford represented themselves very well against the rest of the world. First off on Wednesday 9th was Kjersti, rowing with a friend, Eva, from Loch Lomond, in Women’s G (65 to 70 Age) double scull. They came a fantastic second place. Kjersti also competed with Eva and two ladies from Castle Semple Rowing Club in Scotland in the Women’s G and F quad sculls on Thursday and Friday respectively, being six seconds quicker on the Friday, which is progress in rowing terms and finishing in sixth place in each race.

Also on Wednesday was Pete Spivey rowing with an Austrian friend (Hannes Amon) in the Masters E (55 to 60) double scull event. They had won together in 2017 and repeated their performance with a comfortable win and one of the fastest times of the category which pleased both of them.

Pete also represented Stratford in the challenging Masters E single sculls event on the Friday. After being late for the start and receiving a warning, he just managed to get the boat straight to set off with the other competitors. His first 500m didn’t go as planned and mentally he was disheartened by the poor start, however he realised the other competitors were no longer pulling away and he had plenty of energy in reserve. He composed himself properly, put the hammer down and won the race by one second over the Portuguese masters champion: one of the highlights of his forty five years rowing!

Ellie and Gina were excited to be at Bled for their first international race. The venue was beautiful and it was quite something for them to be part of the 4000 + entries from around the world. The only downside was that the race they had been training for all year the women’s E double scull, got cancelled due to bad weather. The duo were gutted but showing great resilience, picked themselves up to get on with their other races .They had entered a double scull in age group D (50 to 55) and beat seventy of the one hundred crews on time in other heats so were happy with their performance against younger rowers.

The rest of their races were scratch crews, so had never raced with them before. They had a photo finish with Denmark for fourth place in a women’s  F (age 60-65) quad, only one second between third and fifth place which was very impressive given they were scratch crews: an exciting race to say the least!

Tom Doherty raced in a Men’s Double scull F with a friend from Bridgnorth, racing in the outside lane one and coming home towards the back of the field. However, on the Saturday both Pete and Tom teamed up with the rest of the Bridgnorth men and rowed in the Men’s Eight category F. They came a fantastic second place and each crew member was absolutely delighted and a little surprised on how well the race had gone: they left nothing on the line and completely emptied their tanks as a crew. Not bad for a bunch of old boys from the Midlands!

Dan and Suzie, rowing for Upper Thames challenged themselves, completing eighteen races between them, with Susie getting first place and a World Master title for the Women’s E Quad Scull. Upper Thames actually won the overall club trophy for the event, representing the UK at the highest level.

The Sunday of each World Masters regatta is always for the mixed boats and Stratford competed in the Mixed Eight and Quad Sculls, rowing with others from Bridgnorth, Warwick and Upton and just enjoying the last day of racing. Kjersti is quoted as saying, “It shows what rowing is all about, friendship and being part of a rowing community”

Ellie and Gina are planning on competing at next year’s event in Varese, Italy and others will commit to it also.

Congratulations to Pete and Suzie for their successes and for putting Stratford upon Avon Boat Club on the medal table and to all the others involved in this most enjoyable and amazing event.

At Worcester Small Boats Head, held on the 3rd of October, the honour of the Club was defended by Stratford Men’s 2x Masters F crew of Tim Lunel and Chris Edger. It had been four years since their last challenge for the Men’s Masters E/F title at Worcester SBH had been stymied by a handicap given to a crew from an older age category. Using Chat GTP, AI and a complicated algorithm to determine their optimal chances of victory in this blue-riband event, Tim and Chris determined there and then that after an enforced four year absence to move up an age category to give them a twenty four second handicap which would optimise their chances of success in this blue-riband event.