Thursday, the day of the afternoon races. 33 degrees Celsius in St. Catharines and the World Masters Regatta 2010 started the first race at 2.30 pm. 2.28 pm – suddenly dark clouds covern the sky of St. Catharines and the rain falls. The first rain in weeks … laughing all over the regatta … what an omen.

Thursday - 6 races with members of the Don Rowing Club competing thru the day ... and we can be proud of all the results.

WOMEN 4+ - Gilda, Gina, Jane, Michelle and (cox) Heather

The opening race for the Don Rowing Club. Always a heavy load for the first crew of the team - how will they do - a arrow for the whole team. Nervous but looking forward into their race our girls in their starting gate confident. Tail wind and a good start ... the nerves are holding and our boat flies out with two other boats. The teams behind them can not follow their pace and our girls are running down the course holding up ... holding up .... close to the finish line the girls from Western Reserve can seperate and now the finish sprint between DRC and Princeton ... the lucky end for Princeton, but our girls broke the damm for the team into a good regatta for this day

WOMEN 8+ - Laura, Kelley, Marisha, Katie, Corie, Cynthia, Erin, Deb and (cox) Mike

The whole season our girls fought against the crew from Leander. What ever we tried, Leander could win the race ... and today, the draw .... DRC and Leander in one Final race. After reorganizing the boat during the workouts in the past weeks - everybody in tention about the outcome of this battle 2010. After the fantastic race from our girls in the first race ... more confident in the mind ... and we had a good race

See the start: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJHkOEKbRPs (excuse the shaking hand of the coach - :-)

Our girls bullet out of the block and after 250m a 5 meter lead over Leander. And then the battle. Small sprints from Leander - respond from us ... the fastest women 8+ race of the day ... Leander would have won all the other finals ... but not today this one. Congratulations to our girls and to Leander to this exciting race at these World Master 2010

Ryan showed us over the season 2010 a consistent form - and we have been looking forward to see a good result of him in his single race. But what is he doing ... Ryan in trouble in the beginning of his race ... rating more 19 then 32 ..... still good in the race but in danger to loose contact to the leading boats ...

After a reframing Ryan brought himself back together and switched on his race mood ... he passed one and then another boat ... close to the finish line he manage to overtake Sporting Clube Caminhense ... 0.12 sc - infront .... thanks for this race, congratulations to your race

MEN 8+ - Gerd, Nick, Jens, Andrew, Tibor, Don, Russ, Harold and (cox) Margie

The mens eight - and what a field. Former world champions, national team members all over the world and olympic finalists and medalists and in between the crew of DRC. Nick Toulmin our Olympian is leading a crew of competitive club rowers against a team from Russia (and what for names .... ufff) and Ryan Tierney with his crew mates from the world from ancient times.

Gerd stroking the boat .... and stroking it hard .... like the laser of Luke's light saber he flashs our crew out of the start gates and only Ryan can keep up with our team. Russia behind the Don Rowing Club after 500m ... what a picture, but also what a prize our boys paid. Legs like laid, tired steal, arms movement minusvalid ... but still second ... but Russia is closing, so the other boats with snarling teeth. Ryan sneaks slowly away ... but our boys in the best race of their live ... not beating Russia, but this is ok, but holding of 4 boats from the US ... WE finished 3rd.

Congratulations ... and sorry to everybody who could not see this race

Mosaics

- Brian and Mike could win their 4+ in combination with their friends of Peterborough - congrats

- Linda celebrates her rowing come back in her single race

- Liz from Hanlon fought brave a 1x race and finsihed second - congrats  

- our swiss friends from the SZC raced in the 4+ and finsihed 4th

More pictures here:

http://www.donrowingclub.com/gallery?g2_itemId=21634