Results and reports by Event

Today's race was pleasing because we had started to put some of the stuff we had been working on during training (the back end onto the recovery) into a race situation. Our start was nice and strong (minus the obligatory wobble under the bridge/through the outflow) and was ticking along well up to first post. In terms of the course, corners have been our weakest area, however first post (and the remaining corners) were pretty hassle free today. As we came out of first post going through the gut we got calls from the bank that we were gaining on Christs who had started ahead of us. Grassy/plough reach wasn't the smoothest in the world - a few technical calls got us back onto a better rhythm. Out of Ditton corner the head wind was quite noticeable, however we were still hearing from the bank that we were gaining, from inside station up until we got into their dirty water about half way down the reach. Christs moved over to the far side to allow us to continue our line, and Basma did a fantastic job in navigating our way through, with literally a foot either side of the blades, avoiding the bank and the bowside blades of Christs. We spacked out a little bit rowing through, however as we got ahead of them we started to stride away, just in time to cross over and get the inside line out of the railway bridge. From there to the finish line we took it up a couple pips, however the length of our stroke dropped considerably - something to work on in the future. That said, today was a strong, committed row, with only the odd bit of spacking about. At the 1000 m mark we were joint fastest with Queens' (3:13 min), however come the finish line we were 9 seconds back. There are lots of technical gains to be made to make up for this drop, so come Fairbairn's hopefully we can hold onto the speed.

Uploaded Saturday 14th November, 23:41

We came into the race on the back of a week that had seen big technical improvements made in the boat. What was really nice to see was that all of these technical improvements were held in the race and we produced a solid row, especially considering that for some of the crew this was there first race. It would've been nice to have seen a bit more power and commitment at times, but we showed that we now have a solid platform to build on ready for Fairbairn's in a couple of weeks time. In the next two weeks we just need to add a bit of extra power into the drive and try and make sure that we can take the rate that bit higher which should hopefully give us the opportunity to have a very successful race at Fairbairn's.

Uploaded Sunday 15th November, 17:02

For a crew that has only been set together for two weeks, and not been able to row due to weather conditions for much of that time, Saturday's race was really pleasing and we produced a very solid row. From the start our stroke set a good rhythm, and the boat was very sat for much of the race. In the next few weeks we can definitely work on our fitness and drive, so we can put down more power and commitment in future races.

Unfortunately by Saturday afternoon when we raced weather conditions had deteriorated significantly, and a lot of the crew hadn't factored in delays, that meant we had to marshall for an hour, when it came to clothing/provisions - so we were a very wet and cold crew by the time we raced! All this considered, we are really pleased with the result on Saturday, and know what we need to improve on for a solid row at Fairbairn's.

Uploaded Monday 16th November, 16:24