SUBC Summer Success
At the end of a successful academic rowing season, Salford University Boat Club decided on entering races around England over the summer break for the first time in many years. Both Men’s and Women’s crews were in action over the holidays, both with success and disappointment.
Within a month of university exams finishing, the Men’s 8 and Men’s 4 traveled down to Marlow Regatta, near Eton, on Dawney Lake to see how they could compete within such a large and important regatta. To reach the final, the 8 had to compete in two heats, of 2000 metres, of six boats and finish 1st or 2nd. The lads shot off the start and held 2nd until 500 metres to go, when their endurance ran out and were overtaken to finish 3rd. Disappointment all round, but it was later found out that the recorded time for their heat was very respectable, and had it been any other heat, the crews would have progressed into the next heat.
The next day the Men’s 4 raced, not sure what to expect. Once again the boat zoomed off the start, but again, with 250 metres to go, all technique within the boat disappeared, and the crew were overtaken, finishing within 2 seconds of qualifying.
On the same weekend, the Women’s senior 4 raced just down the road from Marlow at Women’s Henley. The girls expected to get through their time trial, which they did comfortably, but knew they would be up against some stiff competition in the first of the heats, which was soon confirmed when they were drawn against Imperial, a high performance club to say the least. The umpire started the race and the Imperial crew veered straight into the Salford Girls! Panic broke loose and the Umpire stopped the race, and for the third time for this type of incident in Henley’s history, the offending crew were disqualified and the girls were through to the next round, something that has never happened before in Salford’s history. Unfortunately, 16 crews now remained, all top university crews, and Salford were drawn against a crew in the running to win the category; Oxford Brooks, who won the heat by a couple of lengths. Even so, the girls were still overjoyed that they performed so well in the time trials, and managed to get through to the second round of heats.
Later on in the summer the Men’s 4 raced at Peterborough Regatta, where they reached the final and finished 3rd, a great result! And nearer the end of the holidays, they traveled up the M60 to Hollingworth Lake, where they entered their own category and the category above them. They reached the final with a great performance in the higher category, proving to themselves that their level of Rowing is increasing dramatically, but unfortunately came 2nd. In their own category they again reached the final, and had to race Manchester University. They held them off all the way until the very end when one of the boys made the smallest of errors, but it was just enough to let Manchester, who were practically neck and neck with them all the way, to edge in front right on the finish line and take the victory. The lads knew they could do better, but in just a couple of years, the level of rowing within this small club has really climbed and we all know that we have a lot to offer this coming season.
James Bullock
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 5:54 pm and is filed under SUBC News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
Comments are closed.