York rowers impressive regatta performance
York University’s Boat Club achieved impressive results in the Women’s Head of the River Race, the pinnacle Head Race of the winter season.
After traveling down to London at the end of March, the Boat Club’s Senior Women’s crew did even better than hoped and came 18th out of the 68 crews in the Senior 4 category, beating Manchester, UCL, Bristol, Warwick and Nottingham universities.
This is the first time the women have had a crew strong enough to compete in this race in two years.
The crew had to battle the 7km sprint on the Thames from London’s Mortlake to Putney against a strong head wind, although other than this the conditions were excellent. Sarah Woods said rowing the famous course was “exhilarating”, especially when they could hear the lively York supporters who had come to watch the team, shouting loudly off Hammersmith Bridge.
Less exhilarating was the ‘very long row home’ against the current. They were on the water for a whopping four hours.
University crews were a strong presence in the race, with Imperial, Cambridge and Durham predictably topping the list coming 7th, 8th and 9th respectively out of the total number of 286 crews, achieving times just over 20 minutes. York completed the course in 21 minutes 13 seconds, only 16 seconds slower than the Senior 3 York City boat, which for a small club like UYBC is an achievement.
The Tideway can be a dangerous course as it is wide and fast-flowing; huge in comparison to the narrow, red-boat dominated Ouse.
The York Novice Men’s Eight had less luck than the women, as the Men’s Head two weeks later was canceled after boats struggled to get to the start and several crews had sunk due to the awful weather conditions. This was a massive blow for the Novices, who had traveled to London to compete after remaining in York beyond the end of last term to train for the event.
On the Senior Men’s front, it seemed that the huge amounts of training and commitment they have put in since the autumn term finally paid off.
Captain Ben Knowles and his Senior Coxed Four boat put up a solid performance at Nottingham City Regatta last weekend, their first regatta this year. Competing in a single scull, Ben got through to the final and came 4th overall. The Four also battled through to the final of their category, despite horrific weather conditions.
The team train seven days a week, which on a typical day consists of two outings on the Ouse plus time spent in the gym. If any sports team deserves victory this season, it is undoubtedly this crew. Drinking bans will now be enforced in preparation for UYBC as Bedford, Met and ultimately, Henley Regattas are prepared for, by both the Men’s and Women’s squads.
