Shropshire Star

Rowers take to the River Severn for Ironbridge Regatta - with pictures and video

It has been running for more than 100 years.

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Rowers get ready for the water at the Ironbridge Regatta

And this year saw dozens of rowers take part in the annual Ironbridge Regatta.

Competitors travelled from all over the country to take to the water in the World Heritage Site, with organisers hailing the weekend a great success.

The regatta attracts on average around 1,500 competitors along with their families and supporters to the Ironbridge Gorge each day over the weekend.

Held on Saturday and Sunday, Ironbridge Rowing Club said the event was very well attended and saw some great competition.

Ruth James, from the club said: "It went really well, it is a very popular event, everyone we spoke to was saying very positive things. It has gone really well so the committee are pleased."

More than 30 clubs travelled to take part in the races.

Ruth added: "The City of Bristol team had a massive entry, they had teams in every other race, we had people from Peterborough, from places up north.

"There was a really good level of competition, we had lots of junior racers, from age 12 to 18 and the standard was exceptional.

"We also had lots of masters entries, which is where people in their 40s, 50s and 60s can race against people in their own age group.

"It is obviously a very popular event because people return because it is well run and because it is in such beautiful scenery.

"People use it as a mini holiday, they come down on the Friday, camp and stay for the racing over the weekend, generally we get a lot of people who also come up and go into Ironbridge.

"It is a relaxed, fun regatta, and that keeps people coming back year after year.

She added: "We are always oversubscribed for entries. We can only hold about 250 races over the weekend before we run out of daylight.

"But the river behaved itself, Bridgnorth Regatta which is normally held two weeks before ours had to be cancelled because we'd had a lot of rain and the water level was too high.

"But we were very lucky, just a little bit of breeze on the Saturday."

For more information about the club visit www.ironbridgerowingclub.co.uk