Results and reports by Event

Given our success and motivation after Queen’s Ergs a few days prior, and an excitingly successful outing on Friday, there was some worrying about Emma Sprints among the NW1 crew. Scary as the first race on the water is, there was the added pressure of being ranked against other novice women’s boats on the river for the first time. But the girls were focused and determined. As we rowed towards the Railway Bridge, we worked on race starts for the first time with the full crew, and they got increasingly better. Marshalling was slightly confusing and nerves were rising. In our first race, we had great race starts and kept a straight line. We managed to do some bursts and focused on keeping the boat level and blades entering and leaving the water together, which got us into a solid lead. We had a couple of issues on 7 because the seat came off (Rob is a scarred soldier) and with stroke catching a crab, but Bow 6 continued to row well until Stern pair recovered smoothly. Unfortunately, the rowing was less in time as the rowers got tired and we lost the race to Emma. The second race was better because there was no more apprehension of what it would be like. The start was executed well and we powered through with a steady rate of around 34, which dropped to around 32 on the last 150m (ish). We focused on trying to stick together and not panic when something went wrong, and overall we were very reactive and controlled, and recoveries from crabs got far better. It was satisfying to have won the second race, as redemption from the first after which we had been slightly frustrated. The encouraging screams from our massive audience of 5 Clareites was very encouraging, and so were post-race sweets. Overall it was a good day because it debunked the scary idea of the first race, and we successfully accomplish nice race starts and overall good continuity in races despite some technical problems setbacks. It gave us a good indicator in terms of potential of where we can be in the river, and gave the girls motivation and excitement to work even harder! We will need to focus on timing (especially on the slide) when race builds up and drops, avoiding or preventing as much as possible some technical mistakes (such as catching crabs), and keeping the movement separation even when moving quicker. But it was surely a positive and hopeful start for a promising novice women’s boat!

Written by our loud and lovely cox Olivia

Uploaded Friday 18th November, 12:21