SURC Beat Cardiff to Claim Indoor Rowing Welsh Varsity Title

On Saturday 24th November, SURC went to the Welsh Indoor Rowing Championships. This was an opportunity for not only for the Seniors to show how much they’ve improved, but for last years’ Novices to prove they’ve made the step to Senior. It was also a great opportunity for new members to show the rest of the club what they are made of.

First up were the women in the Student 2K event. With 14 Swansea entries, the women showed a strong start to the season with a number of them achieving new PBs.

Next it was the turn of the Senior Men’s squad. Ewan Mortlock followed up his last years success by claiming the Bronze medal and Aidan Thompson narrowly taking the top spot.

The rest of the squad also saw great success with many of them achieving their best time over 2K as well, highlighting the improvements already made over the first couple of months of the new season.

It was also an opportunity for the novice rowers to show both Cardiff and the seniors what potential they have over 1km. A notable achievement was Emilie James taking 2nd place in the women’s freshers event.

2018 saw the return of the Indoor Welsh Varsity, the average split of the fastest eight men and women over 1km, with legs still heavy from their respective 2Ks they had completed earlier that day. After a tense technical pause, Swansea took an early lead. With the crowd spurring us on, Swansea was able to hold off the Cardiff efforts to claim the Indoor Varsity title.

With the head session in full swing, welsh indoors provided a break from the cold weather. Moving forward to key races next year (including BUCS races and Welsh Varsity) Swansea will look to ride this momentum throughout the winter training period and into the new year.

Also deserving of a mention are the volunteers at Channel View Leisure centre and Concept 2 that did a brilliant job of organising and running the event.