Congratulations to all Mercantile rowers on a sensational day at the Ballarat Regatta.  Mercantile had representatives win the women's single, men's and women's doubles, women's pair, men's and women's fours, and no doubt the highlight of the day, the men's and women's eights.  A special mention must go to Lachie McKinnon who unfortunately clipped a bouy in the final metres of his single scull race only to lose by a few centimetres.  An unlikely win over VIS athlete Karsten Forsterling would have capped off a meteoric improvement for the big man.  No doubt there is much success awaiting him this season.  Robyn Selby Smith did a fantastic job in the single to signal that she is well and truly back in town and will be back in green and gold for the international regattas.  Lightweight rowers Stephanie Radford and Claire Saundry produced the row of the day to win the women's double scull, narrowly defeating Mercantile's own Jo Gray and Carley McKay, giving Mercantile a fantastic 1-2 result over VIS athletes Alli Crowe and Lisa Szatsznadjer.  Steph and Claire are still youth age rowers and are certainly champions of the future.  Congratulations to John Chestney, Mark Baxter and David Colvin for their fantastic coaching of these athletes.  Another great performance was that of our two lightweight males, James Wilson and David DeLang.  After a sensational 10 length win in their heat they went on to come second in the heavyweight men's pair.  These two have been a revelation this year and will certainly be in the hunt for national team selection.  Finally as mentioned previously both the Mercantile men's and women's eights won their finals easily with our traditional rival, MUBC, coming second in both.  Such a rivalry is fantastic for both clubs as it pushes all athletes and coaches to produce their best when racing and is great for Victorian rowing.  While there is a long way to go it was great to see us start this intense racing period with some wins with hopefully a lot more hardware to collect through to the State Championships.