Rowers all in a sweat as the temperatures soar

Saturday 16 July 2016

After a summer to forget, today came the summer nobody wanted.

Well, not quite, for while sunbathers were eagerly tanning themselves, the rowers in today’s 50th Willis Towers Watson Sark to Jersey race were complaining in unison - ‘It’s too damned hot!’

Hundreds of well-wishers cheered the rowers into the bay and first over the line were the four man crew from Jersey Rowing Club in  blistering time of one hour 54 minutes and six seconds. 

The ‘Second Wind’ crew, pictured above - Des Nevitt, Simon Defeu, Paul Coutanche and Michael Rive - was coxed by Natasha Paling, who admitted the weather has gone from one extreme to the other in a matter of days. 

“It was very, very hot out there, really tough,” she said. “We are delighted to have won, but really, that was too hot to be rowing in. Two weeks ago the race was postponed because it was cold, rainy and horrible and now this. It is almost too hot! We can’t win.”

The singles was won by Frenchman Perrick Ledard, below, who crossed the line at Bonne Nuit Bay in a remarkable two hours, seven minutes and 45 seconds, just over 13 minutes slower than the four-man team. 

M Ledard, from Carteret, is in training for the French championships and yet even he found the going difficult. 

He said: “At the halfway stage I was two minutes inside the record time for Sark to Jersey in a single boat, but then as Jersey approached it started getting further away! It was really hard. The last couple of kilometres were not easy because of the heat. It was hot other. I had to take on some more sugar because I was sweating so much. It was fun, but very tough.”

The first ladies team over the finish line were from Quilter Cheviot in a time of two hours 15 minutes and 38 seconds. 

Danielle Cox, Michelle Tring, Nathalie Le Barz, Harriet Safe and Jeanette Crowder, pictured below, were overjoyed to come first. 

Ms Tring said: “It is a great achievement and we are all proud of ourselves, but my God, it was hot!” 

Transatlantic rower Ian Blandin and Derik Mare, below, were delighted with the race, with Mr Blandin in a rush to get to a friends’ wedding in St Brelade. He said: “It was terrific, but a couple of days ago it was too cold, not it is way to hot! Why can’t we get it just right!”