Results and reports by Event

Race reports are like washing-up: the sooner you do them, the better. Unfortunately, in the considerable time between getting off the water and writing this, all the memories of a fantastic day have sort of merged into one, so please don't expect ridiculous levels of detail.

The novice races saw some of our most technical rowing. We won our first heat comfortably, just getting clear water from City of Cambridge as we came over the finish. Going into our final, we knew that the other City crew that we were racing would be very fast off the start, and so it proved. Fortunately, we raced over 1000m, not 200m, so we held our nerve and closed up the (very small) gap that had emerged off the start. This race in particular felt really good: we kept it long, and a series of pushes from 500m onwards brought us steadily ahead of the City crews and Bedford. We were to win by two lengths in the end, a fair margin given our standard of rowing and our commitment throughout.

The IM3 races were a lot tougher, in several respects. Our nerves got the better of us during our heat, and we didn't respond to the Nines crew who closed steadily on us in the last 250 metres. We qualified for the final by 0.3 seconds, which was particularly for Nines since, had they been racing in the other heat, they would have qualified for the final in first place. As for the final, we had the misfortune to be racing it right after the novice final, meaning that many of us were rather tired as we backed onto the start for the fourth time that day. Churchill and Nottingham moved away from the start, but we held our length to spur both of them on into what was to be an extremely close race. Again, it was 0.3 seconds that separated them, but Churchill emerged victorious, perhaps a fair result given their phenomenal performance in their first heat. We finished third, a length of clear water behind the leading crews but with the same distance between us and De Montfort University in fourth.

After that, it was off to control to collect our pots and, for the rowers, to say goodbye to novice status. Congratulations to everyone on moving up to IM3, particularly to Johnny, who'd been waiting for nine years ...

I'm also very pleased that you enjoyed getting your own back on me once we'd returned to the boathouse. I'm less pleased, however, about how far into the middle of the Cam you threw me.

Full results are online at http://db.tt/rEDqqAFN.

Uploaded Monday 28th May, 14:37