Ben Murphy
Brookes takes 4th at Head of the Charles
Oxford Brookes Men’s 1st VIII charged from 24th place to 4th place at this weekend’s Head of the Charles Regatta. Cox Harry Brightmore was kept on his toes at all times whilst overtaking crews from Princeton, Penn and Cornell. This has been a great experience and a big learning curve for all the crew who hope to be able to return next year in a more competitive starting position. The race, the largest regatta in the world, took place between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The crew were in fifth place through the first two timing points at Riverside Boat Club and Weld Boathouse, but the fastest last two minutes of
Head of the Charles preview
This weekend our Men’s 1st VIII will compete in the Head of the Charles Regatta for the first time since 2004, when they finished in 4th place in Championship Eights. The crew faces senior international crews from the USA, Netherlands, Germany and Italy in addition to many US College rivals and also challenges from the UK in the form of Cambridge University, who won the 2004 race. The crew are all returners from last year’s Henley Royal Regatta winning Ladies Plate and Temple Cup crews, and half of the crew represented Great Britain at the recent SH Netz Cup in Germany where they finished in third place. Read more here.
Summer International Roundup
BROOKES|Rowing athletes saw considerable success when racing internationally this summer, following the culmination of the university rowing calendar at Henley in July. Six athletes raced at the Senior World Championships, which took place in Linz, Austria. Rory Gibbs, in his first season as part of the GB Rowing senior team, won a bronze medal as part of the coxless four, following a tough battle with Romania throughout. This qualified the boat for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. In the men’s eight, Mat Tarrant and Josh Bugajski claimed a bronze medal, also qualifying the boat for the Olympics. Morgan Bolding and pairs partner Tom Jeffrey came agonisingly close- eventually finishing
More Success at Henley Royal Regatta
Following a strong season for the whole squad, the domestic season concluded last week at Henley Royal Regatta, where Brookes qualified 10 crews into the main draw. The Ladies Plate crew completed a hat trick of wins in this event, with new crew members Oliver Wilkes, Brendan Edwards, Jamie Axon taking their first win in the event. The crew had races against U23 crews from Great Britain and The Netherlands in what proved to be one of the most competitive Ladies Plate fields in recent years. However, the crew were able to edge a 1 length lead against the Dutch crew, who had set a new record for the event
Brookes Retain Women’s Henley Title
A dominant performance throughout the week in the Academic Eight saw a completely new crew of Alice Harper, Lieben Dickens, Coralie Spearman, Harriet Ferguson, Katie Metalli, Jordan Simper, Beth Meakin, Beth Wilford-Dutton and returning cox Aisling Humphries-Griffiths take victory by an impressive margin of 4.5 lengths, retaining the Academic Eights Title won in 2018. The crew had recorded clear water margins over Oxford, Cardiff and Birmingham earlier in the regatta and this demonstrated the depth that is developing in the women’s programme at BROOKES|Rowing, with a mixture of experience levels throughout the athletes. Sophia Heath, racing in an U23 Great Britain development crew, beat off international competition from Princeton University
Metropolitan Regatta Report
This weekend saw the full Brookes squad racing at the Metropolitan Regatta, which took place at Dorney Lake and provided the squad with good racing against British crews who will be opposition at both Henley Womens Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta in the coming weeks. In the Men’s Championship Eights, Brookes fielded 5 eights, of which 3 made the A Final to face crews including Leander Club and Molesey Boat Club. The Ladies Plate crew controlled the race throughout, being the fastest crew in every 500. They took the victory by just under a length over our Temple Cup crew, who pushed them hard and finished a length up on
Five BROOKES|Rowing athletes selected for European Championships
Five athletes have been selected for the upcoming European Rowing Championships, which takes place from 31st May to 2nd June in Lucerne, Switzerland. Matthew Tarrant, a long time member of the Great Britain Senior team, will race in the Men’s Eight- a crew which took bronze at las year’s World Rowing Championships. Matt raced in the crew which won this year’s Head of the River Race, and rowed at Brookes from 2008-2012. Following a gold medal in the pair at the U23 World Championships, coached by Henry Bailhache-Webb, he was invited into the senior team for the Rio Olympiad. He raced in the spare pair at the Rio Olympics having
Duisburg Regatta Report
BROOKES|Rowing travelled to Duisburg in Germany this weekend for the 2019 International Wedau Regatta. Following a dominant display at BUCS Regatta the previous weekend, greater challenges awaited with a number of senior international crews racing at their first regatta of the season. This included World Record holders and current World Champions Germany- who headed a strong field in the Men’s Eights event. Saturday’s racing saw three Brookes crews feature in the final of the Men’s eights- where strong cross-headwind conditions resulted in the lanes being seeded. Brookes finished in 3rd, 4th and 6th place- the 1st 8 six seconds behind Germany and one behind Leander. The women’s eights had a
BUCS Regatta Report
The men’s squad went unbeaten and women’s squad medalled in eight of the nine events they raced over the weekend, in what was a great first step of the regatta season for the whole club. On Day 1, the men raced in Championship and Intermediate eights. They had won both events every year since 2013, and this year did not disappoint. With two eights in the championship category, the 1st VIII stormed to a seven second victory. However, what made this even more impressive, was that the crew in second place was our 2nd VIII, who finished the race with a clear water margin over bronze medallists Newcastle. This is
GB Final Trials Report
The past weekend saw a number of Brookes athletes head to the GB Rowing headquarters at Caversham Lake for the final set of trials for this summer’s World Rowing Senior and U23 Championships. Overall, Brookes had 23 athletes racing across the weekend. The most impressive result was Josh Bugajski, 2019 Head of the River Race and 2017 Ladies’ Plate winner, taking the overall win in the M2- with his partner James Rudkin following a 3rd place finish last season. Current Brookes athletes Rory Gibbs and Morgan Bolding also had their best ever result by finishing 4th- beating 5 Caversham-based pairs in the process. Both these athletes have been part of
