Andy Jaggard returned from Libourne in France with a 2022 World Masters Regatta medal won in the Masters G single sculls, a fantastic achievement to add to the one that he won at the 2019 Regatta in Hungary in the MasF 2x with Nick Cowan of Lakeland Rowing Club.
From the three events he entered Andy succeeded in winning one and taking second place in the other two, the MasH 1x, for which he was eligible having recently turned 70, and the MasG 2x in which he again combined with Nick Cowan. Nick also took home a winners medal by successfully defending the Mixed MasE 2x title he won with Sam Ayers in Hungary.
After months of preparation a team of 15 plus supporters travelled from Durham ARC to take part in 28 races at the 5-day regatta, in which a total of 622 races, involving over 3200 competitors from around the world, were contested over 1000 metres on the 8-lane course at Libourne near Bordeaux between Wednesday, September 7th and Sunday, September 11th. Events for Men’s and Women’s crews took place on days 1 to 4 while the final day was reserved for Mixed crews.
A minute’s silence was observed on day 3 in memory of Queen Elizabeth II who died on Thursday.
Because of Covid-related cancellations over the previous two years competitors faced a number of organisational changes since 2019, the most challenging brought about following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU last year, as a consequence of which clubs were required to obtain a carnet allowing them to enter and exit France with a boat trailer, under threat of a hefty fine for any transgressions relating to validity of paperwork and equipment when crossing the border.
After careful planning and some inter-club co-ordination the DARC trailer succeeded in making the journey to Libourne and back with boats from Hexham, York and Lakeland as well as those from Durham.
As is usual for the World Masters the large number of entries precludes any progression system so a medal is awarded to the winner of each race. The most popular event this time was the Men’s Masters F 1x (for ages 60-64) with 139 entries, meaning a medal was available for the winner of each of the 18 scheduled races.
As well as Andy’s two runner-up finishes the DARC contingent achieved second places in three further events – Gabrielle Moore in the Women’s MasF single sculls on Thursday, Derek Gordon in a MasJ 4x composite with Tees Rowing Club and Cambridge Boat Club (USA) on Friday, and Kim Forster and David Muse in the Mixed MasA 2x on Sunday.
Gabrielle entered eight events, in the process also taking DARC’s only 3rd place in the Mixed MasF 4x on Sunday along with Sarah Rutter, Paul Rutter and Julian Ringer (now representing Norwich RC). Kim and David also entered the Mixed MasC 2x, the Men’s MasB 2x and Men’s MasC 2x in which they took 6th place despite competing in the latter two against all male opposition.
Julian replaced John Watkinson in the Mixed MasF 4x as well as in a number of composite crews with Tees RC. Derek appeared in six composite crews in the G, H, I and J categories (J being for crews of average age 80 to 82).
Sarah Rutter, Aisling Dutton, Gabrielle Moore and Angela Lund combined in the Women’s MasE 4x on Thursday, before Gabrielle and Aisling entered the WE 2x on Friday, and Gabrielle and Angela the WF 2x on Saturday, while Sarah and Paul Rutter combined in the Mixed F 2x on Sunday.
The Women’s MasA/B crew were making their first appearance on the World stage and entered six events, with the WMasB crew of Fiona Ashton, Rebecca Chilcott, Heather Arrowsmith-Tosley and Kate Sowden taking 5th place in the WMasB 4x on Wednesday, before Rebecca, Heather and Meghan McCarthy combined with Elizabeth Waterman of Hexham RC to achieve 4th place in the WMasA 4- on Thursday.
Results of all races have been provided by Regatta Central here.
Results for DARC are summarised below –
1st place
- Men G 1x Andy Jaggard on Saturday
2nd place
- Women F 1x Gabrielle Moore on Thursday
- Men H 1x Andy Jaggard on Thursday
- Men G 2x (Durham/Lakeland) Andy Jaggard and Nick Cowan on Friday
- Men J 4x (Tees/Durham/Cambridge (USA)) Carlo Zezza, Chris Kenyon, Derek Gordon, Henry Hamilton on Friday
- Mixed A 2x Kim Forster and David Muse on Sunday
3rd place
- Mixed F 4x (Durham/Norwich/Tees) Sarah Rutter, Gabrielle Moore, Paul Rutter, Julian Ringer on Sunday
4th place
- Women E 4x Sarah Rutter, Aisling Dutton, Gabrielle Moore, Angela Lund on Thursday
- Women A 4- (Durham/Hexham) Rebecca Chilcott, Heather Arrowsmith-Tosley, Elizabeth Waterman, Meghan McCarthy on Thursday
- Women E 2x Aisling Dutton, Gabrielle Moore on Friday
- Mixed G 8+ (Durham, Tees, Tyne ARC) Paul Rutter, Derek Gordon, Ian Boyd, John Lund, Gabrielle Moore, Angela Lund, Aisling Dutton, Sarah Rutter, Andy Jaggard (cox) on Sunday
5th place
- Women B 4x Fiona Ashton, Rebecca Chilcott, Heather Arrowsmith-Tosley, Kate Sowden on Wednesday
- Men I 4x (Norwich/Durham/Tyne ARC/Cambridge BC (USA)) Julian Ringer, Derek Gordon, Ian Boyd, Henry Hamilton on Thursday
- Women F 8+ (Bewl Bridge/Durham/Clydesdale/Strathclyde Park) Elizabeth Davidson, Rowena Suthers, Paula Hubens, Sarah Rutter, Rosalie McSwiggen, Mary O’Toole, Henrietta Graham-Campbell, Jacqueline Irons, Alistair Neill (cox) on Saturday
- Mixed G 4x (Durham/Tees) Angela Lund Gabrielle Moore, John Lund, Anthony Stocking on Sunday
- Mixed F 2x Sarah Rutter, Paul Rutter on Sunday
- Mixed C 2x Kim Forster, David Muse on Sunday
6th place
- Women B 2- Rebecca Chilcott, Kate Sowden on Thursday
- Men B 2x Kim Forster David Muse on Thursday
- Women F 2x Gabrielle Moore, Angela Lund on Saturday
- Men C 2x Kim Forster, David Muse on Saturday
- Women E 1x Gabrielle Moore on Saturday
- Men I 2x (Tyne ARC/Durham) Ian Boyd, Derek Gordon on Saturday
7th place
- Men I 8+ (Bristol Ariel/Norwich/Durham/Tees/Tyne ARC) Graham Davidson, Julian Ringer, Robert Bainbridge, John Lund, Ralph Pickles, Ian Boyd, Derek Gordon, Chris Kenyon, Jo Lewis (Cox) on Wednesday
- Women B 4- Rebecca Chilcott, Heather Arrowsmith-Tosley, Kate Sowden, Meghan McCarthy on Thursday
- Women B 2x Heather Arrowsmith-Tosley, Kate Sowden on Friday
- Men H 4x (Norwich/Durham/Tyne ARC) Julian Ringer, Matthew Davies, Derek Gordon, Ian Boyd on Saturday
8th place
- Women A 2x Fiona Ashton, Meghan McCarthy on Thursday
Daily lists for all races are also available from RowTiming on the World Masters website here.
To encourage the equalisation of numbers of male and female participants, and single club entries rather than composites a Club Trophy was awarded to the winner of a points competition. All club results attracted points towards the total. DARC finished on 102 points in the combined team competition, putting them in equal 30th position in the overall world table and equal 7th of the eligible British clubs. Results can be found here.
Thanks to Kim Forster for the above photo. Regatta photos can be found here.
DARC crews have attended the World Masters Regatta many times and the number of entries and therefore the scale of the challenge increases year by year. Commenting on Andy’s medal success Chairman Paul Rutter acknowledged the achievement. “Really really good, the competition out there is heading into professional rowers now and to get anything more than second is almost unattainable.”
The 2023 World Masters will take place in South Africa next September.