Rowing success in Canada

Aug 20 2010 Dumfries Standard Friday

LAST WEEK Dumfries rower Alex Gemie returned from Canada following a successful trip away at the Commonwealth Rowing Championships.

The 2010 event took place from July 31 to August 1 in Welland, Ontario, Canada.

Alex scooped a gold, silver and bronze medal at the prestigious event.

The Commonwealth Rowing Championships represents one of the few opportunities in which rowers can compete on behalf of Scotland.

Rowing is currently classified as a Tier III sport by the Commonwealth Games Federation, and as such is currently not included in the programme of main events, hence its exclusion from The Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi, India, later this year.

For the 2010 Commonwealth Rowing Championships, a new format with reduced team sizes, was introduced in an attempt to promote the event to developing Commonwealth rowing nations.

Teams consisted of a maximum of eight athletes, with the same number of males and females and within that, two male athletes and two female athletes who would be lightweights but also doubling up in the heavyweight events.

This unique format meant that each country would compete with a small, restricted team with athletes competing in multiple events across different disciplines.

This meant that athletes had to be capable of demonstrating a high level of ability in both rowing and sculling events – a task in which Alex was well suited with her proven track record of success in both rowing and sculling.

Saturday's racing saw Alex team up with fellow lightweight athlete, Kelly Limond, from Glasgow, for both the women’s lightweight double scull and the women’s lightweight pair.

With the girls only having come together for this competition, neither boat had raced before so the new combination did well to just miss out on claiming a bronze medal in both events.

Sunday morning was Alex's first win with a bronze medal in the women’s quadruple scull in which she and Kelly teamed up with heavyweight Scots Stephanie McDowall and Polly Swann, both from Edinburgh.

Despite being challenged by a feisty Australian crew, the girls increased on their lead to claim medal position.

After a quick turnaround of the race timetable, Alex improved on her bronze medal to claim silver in the women’s lightweight single scull.

After a strong start, she settled behind the Canadian sculler into second place where she remained unchallenged for the remainder of the race and cruised into the silver spot.

In the closing event of a highly successful weekend, all eight Scots athletes combined well in the unique, mixed eights event against crews from the other competing nations to claim the final gold medal ahead of the Australian and Canadian crews in silver and bronze medal positions respectively.

In the overall team result, Scotland finished a highly credible second behind the host nation Canada.

Alex, 24 is now having a well deserved two-week break from rowing in Aberdeen where she currently lives and trains.

Aberdeen Boat Club captain James McKee said: “Alex trains so hard and she deserves all the success she gets. She is absolutely dedicated, training twice a day and is a credit to her sport and club.

“Alex commits almost all of her time to rowing and it is great to see all her hard work is being rewarded with the success she has enjoyed in Canada.”

Alex's success helped the Scotland team secure a sizeable medal haul of six golds, four silvers and eight bronze medals over two days of intense competition.

In the overall team result, Scotland finished a highly credible second behind the host nation Canada.