Lynne Mowbray|

The Clarence River in Grafton was a busy over the weekend as the city hosted the annual Head of the Clarence River Rowing regatta and the Grafton Rowing Club’s annual regatta.

Despite the smoky conditions, it was an excellent weekend of rowing on the river.

Winner of the point score for the Head of the River, City of Grafton Champion School Boys Eight trophy, was The Kings School (TKS), from Sydney.

Six elite rowers Elliot Apel, Angel Silder, Miller Rowe, Jess Scott, Phoebe Robinson and Leukie Smith, assisted with handing out of the winning ribbons and trophies on Saturday afternoon.

Rowing coach, Scott Rowe gave a rundown of some of their achievements:

Elliot was in the under 23 Australian men’s team this year at the world championships in America,” he said.

“Angel is from the Swiss (rowing) team, who just arrived from Switzerland and was at the world junior games in 2018.

“Miller rowed in the under 21 team this year and the junior team before that, for Australia.

“Jess rowed in the junior Australian rowing team in 2018.

“Phoebe rowed in the junior Australian team this year 2019 and last year 2018 and Leukie rowed in the junior team in 2018.

“On Sunday, most of these rowers had between five and seven races each and at this time of year it’s all about them getting in as much practise and on this river you come here and you’d row as much as you can anyway, because this river is one of the best in Australia,” he said.