News

Posted: May 5, 2016

Strong winds across all three days of racing made for an eventful BUCS Regatta at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham. Crews battled through a stiff headwind that caused a truncated racing programme at Europe’s largest student regatta.

73 different universities entered 1,166 crews as 2,647 students descended on Nottingham for one of the busiest and most highly anticipated rowing weekends of the year. Poor forecast conditions meant that the weather was never far from the lips of competitors, coaches and organisers in the run up to the regatta. In the end a substantial racing programme was still run with Monday’s racing being the worst hit. A/B semi finals in Intermediate and Beginner events as well as all minor finals were lost in the middle of the day as strong gusts and heavy rain swept through the course. Eventually all events managed to run A/B finals with side-by-side racing. Thanks must go out as always to BUCS, their organising team and key volunteers for running such an impressive regatta in such difficult conditions.

Edinburgh University were the pick of the universities from north of the border as they collected six golds, three silvers and a bronze medal to finish an incredible fourth in the Victor Ludorum. Strong performances from the beginner squads, under the stewardship of Performance Development Coach Tom Young, as well as the Senior Women’s squad, were the lynchpin of their success.

Great Britain U23 representative Maddie Arlett and World Indoor Rowing Champion Robyn Hart-Winks stole the show with three gold medals each. The pair easily won the lightweight double on Saturday by a comfortable margin before doubling up in the Championship Quad with Anne Rodahl and Emily Bowie to win their second gold of the day. This was followed up by a much tougher win in the lightweight pair on Monday, in the toughest conditions of the weekend. In doing so they overcame Cambridge University and also the returning champions Emma McDonald and Flora Wharton of Glasgow University, who took the bronze medal, in the second thousand metres.

The Edinburgh women’s beginner squad took a brace of gold medals in the beginner eights and quad event. The two races could not have been more different. The eight was won in one of the most exciting races of the weekend, with Durham University closing on them hard in the second half of the race to come within just a couple of seconds. The beginner quad, however, took the inaugural medals in this event, by blowing away the field to win by nearly half a minute. The crew of Lauren Bamber, Sophie Parsons, Rebecca Drummond and Helena Brecht will look to build on their success as they progress into the senior squad next year. In the same event Glasgow University also put in a very strong performance to take the bronze medal. A particularly impressive performance considering they overcame the specialist sculling team from Reading University. The Edinburgh beginner men, not to be outdone, came away with a silver medal behind a very fast University College London crew.

The Edinburgh senior men put in strong performances as expected with a gold medal for the third year running in the Championship lightweight doubles whilst also picking up silver medals in the Intermediate lightweight single, the Championship heavyweight pair and the Championship coxed four. A depleted Championship eight was also able to defy expectations to take fourth place off the University of London to match their position from last year.

In addition to their bronzes in the women’s lightweight pair and beginner quad, Glasgow’s Emma McDonald won a gold medal in the Championship lightweight single. Defending her title from last year, the Great Britain U23 representative stormed away from the field, using her experience of difficult water conditions, to beat her nearest competitor by nine seconds. There was also a standout performance from the Glasgow men’s Championship eight who made the A final for the first time in four years.

There was also a gold medal for Heriot Watt University through Gavin Horsburgh in the men’s Championship lightweight single. Horsburgh, a gold medallist from last year’s Junior World Championship quad, rowed through the field in the third five-hundred to take the win by two seconds. An incredibly impressive performance as this is Gavin’s first year in university rowing. The same final also saw Matthew Curtis of Edinburgh and Gregor Maxwell of Stirling University take 4th and 5th places respectively. Ben Parsonage of Strathclyde University just missed out on the A final of this event, with a 4th place in the semi-final. These results in addition to those in the women’s lightweight events show the depth of lightweight rowing across Scotland at the moment.

The two Aberdeen based clubs each took away a bronze medal from the weekend with a third place for Lewis McCue of Robert Gordon University in the men’s championship single whilst Fiona Bell of Aberdeen also took third in the women’s Intermediate single. It was a strong weekend for McCue, a three-time competitor and silver medallist for Great Britain at the Under 23 World Championships, and his Robert Gordon teammates, as they also took 4th in the Championship pairs and 5th Intermediate coxed fours.

It was encouraging to see the strength of so many university programmes, with plenty of entries in Championship events where previously crews may have entered the intermediate categories. Similarly it was good to see many second crews entering and competing well in intermediate categories, often coming up against university first crews.

Click Here for a full list of all Scottish crews that reached A or B finals in their event, alongside a medal table for Scottish Universities at the event.

Article provided by Will Horrocks. Henley Stewards Charitable Trust Coach.