York City Rowing Club's men have been in top class action at the Henley Royal Regatta.

The crew of Carl Abram, Dave Heffernan, Owen Gillard, Dan Clarke and cox Penny Whiting qualified for the well-established regatta after training over the winter in eights and single sculls.

Their first heat saw one of the closest races of the day and ended with York beating a seeded crew from Imperial College, London.

York built a lead of three-quarters of a length, slowly pulling away from the opposition, but saw the lead diminish towards the end, as Imperial put in a final burst. But the York crew fought off the challenge to win by four feet.

York were beaten by a third of a length by Thames 'A' in their second heat. The York crew then moved on to the Bedford Regatta, winning both Senior 1 4+ and Elite 4+ in comfortable style.

York City Rowing Club's women's Henley crew, meanwhile, will be competing at the National Championships at Strathclyde this weekend as will Matt Noble, who will be representing the junior section of the club in J151x.

The championships will also see York sculler Jill Salvin competing under the umbrella of Notts County Rowing Association in the Open Women's quad sculls and doubles.

She will be looking to build on her semi-final appearance in the Open quad sculls at Henley.

She will then train and race with her York City doubles partner, Loretta Williams, in preparation for the FISA Masters Championships to be held in September in Vichy, France.

Additional senior and junior men's and women's crews are also putting in the final preparations for the remainder of the season's races, including competing at St Neots and Peterborough.

Updated: 10:02 Friday, July 18, 2003