Results and reports by Event

We have made some good improvements in training over the last week and we were all eager to put in a solid race today. Our start was not the cleanest, but it got moving nicely around stroke 8 ish, and had a clean line around Ditton. We made a push out of Ditton when we got straight and just ploughed on down the reach. The boat was feeling relaxed whilst rating 35ish and there was a nice rhythm coming through at particular points. We held on through the reach, although we could have responded more to certain calls at this point, and put our bodies on the line a bit more. Coming out of the bridge we continued in a similar fashion, with the pain very much settled in... the finish line at the P&E is always further away than you think - the final sprint/empty the tanks felt like it was going on forever. Crossing the finish line, we all felt pleased that we put in a solid row and that we have things to improve on. We were quicker than Kings who are chasing us in a month, and Queens (who we are chasing) were quicker than us by 3 secs. Roll on bumps!!

Uploaded Saturday 17th May, 18:38

In keeping with our post-race chat, I think we can take a lot of positives out of today's race. Our start, while not perhaps as explosive as yesterday's practice, was nevertheless sharp, getting us up on rate well before the start line. Racing to each defined marker - Railings, Pink House, Railway Bridge, top bend, finish - helped give us concrete targets to hit in a race that would otherwise have fallen down the rabbit-hole into the arid hinterland between sprint and head race. There were a couple of points when we may have let it slip slightly, but never enough to require a big push to bring it up; this is an aspect of our rowing that has really come a long way in the last couple of weeks. Perhaps we could have squeezed out a little more on the catches, too, but by and large it was a really good milestone in our development as a crew, leaving us with our eyes now set on our targets for the coming weeks.

Uploaded Saturday 17th May, 17:03