The 2007 National Championships primarily gave the squad the opportunity to test out various sculling combinations. We were accompanied by Hannah Mason who rowed in the victorious 2005 boat race crew and now sculls out of Wallingford RC.

Katie Taylor performed exceptionally well in U23 1x, narrowly missing out on a place in the final. This was her first time racing in a single and in an openweight field including scullers who have previously achieved senior international representation, this is a promising result to take into next season.

Sarah Cornick and Hannah Mason raced in WL 1x. Sarah was eliminated in the semi-finals, but Hannah built on her sculling performances at regattas earlier in the summer to win her semi-final before finishing 4^th overall. Despite the disappointment of missing out on a medal, this was a fantastic result in yet another strong field.

Katie, Hannah and Sarah combined forces with the 2007 President, Alice Millest, to race in WL 4x. By the time of the final, the wind had picked up and a strong headwind was blowing up the course. This didn’t deter the OUWLRC/Wallingford combination who were determined not to leave Nottingham without any medals. The crew battled hard down the course finishing in bronze medal position, just unable to push back on the MAA crew who won the silver. TSS won the gold medal.

An U23 2x of Katie Taylor and Alice Millest also finished in 4^th place and Linda Reynard and Alice Millest raced again in their successful BUSA pair, but unfortunately missed out on a place in the WL 2- final.

After HWR, Katie Taylor joined forces with 3 members of Wallingford RC in an attempt to qualify for HRR in the women’s quads (The Princess Grace Challenge Cup). Despite only having a few days to get the crew together before the qualifying races, the quad raced well and unfortunately narrowly missed out on a place in the regatta as the fastest non-qualifiers.

Following the promising results at Gent and Met in coxless fours, the combination of Katie Taylor, Alice Millest, Linda Reynard and Sarah Cornick began preparation for Elite Lightweight 4- (the Vesta Cup) at HWR.

In the first round of the event, OUWLRC faced Neptune rowing club. Oxford gained a small advantage off the start, but Neptune were not going to give in easily. Despite a strong challenge from the Irish crew, Oxford were always in the lead and held their nerve to pull away to a 3/4 length victory in a time of 5.37 (the fastest time recorded in the whole event).

Victory over Neptune resulted in progression to the semi-final, and a race against a polished crew from Mortlake, Anglian & Alpha Boat Club (MAA), the favourites for the title. The Oxford crew put in a solid performance and the 2 crews tussled for most of the course, but the more experienced MAA crew were able to pull away in the closing stages of the race to win by a margin of 3/4 length. MAA went on to win the event, beating Reading RC in the final.