Portora Boat Club coach and rower Gerry Murphy travelled to the National water sports Centre in Nottingham at the weekend to take part in the British Masters Rowing championships. 
This was his attempt to win British Masters Championships titles in two separate sports after securing two titles in canoeing at the same venue five weeks earlier.
On Saturday morning conditions were perfect with a tailwind blowing straight down the six lane course. With three heats of six rowers in his class, the men’s E single scull, the format was to be the winner of each heat went through to the final with the next three fastest times also qualifying. 
When the time came to launch for his heat weather conditions had changed slightly with the wind dropping and turning to a slight head wind. Gerry took to the water knowing that a first place or fast second was going to be needed to progress to the final. 
A good row saw him finish second two seconds behind Julian Shriver of Upton Rowing club with a time of 3mins 54 which was the fourth fastest time of the heats.
When it was time to boat again for the final two hours later conditions had changed for the worse with a strong head wind now blowing down the course. Gerry took to the water knowing that the conditions weren’t going favour him as a light weight rower against the taller and heavier opposition. 
When the starter dropped his flag Gerry had an excellent start that saw him lead the race by two seconds at the 500M, half way mark. He held this position and lead until going into the last quarter of the race when the head wind took its toll and the bigger men made a push for the finish.
Approaching the finish line he raced hard and was passed by Mark Shimmin of Upper Thames rowing Club who took the gold and Jullian Shriver who took the silver and Gerry taking the bronze with last year’s champion Dave Gwilliams. After the race Gerry said: “ I had to get out early and try to command the race from the front but unfortunately the head wind took it’s toll in the last quarter of the race and I couldn’t hold them off.”