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European Rowing U23 Championships
Four Brookes athletes have spent the summer training at the GB Rowing Centre at Caversham in preparation for the inaugural European Rowing U23 Championships in Kruszwica, Poland. They have just returned from a successful weekend of racing, capping off an outstanding summer for Brookes athletes representing Great Britain, following success at the World Rowing U23 Championships in July. Sam Nunn raced in the men’s eight, with Aisling Humphries-Griffiths, Sophia Heath and Grace MacDonald racing in the women’s eight. The men’s eight came away with a hard fought silver medal ahead of France by 0.31s and just a length behind Romania, the silver medalists from the recent World U23
Golden Weekend at EUSA 2017
Last weekend, the Brookes contingent came home with 4 golds and 1 silver from the European University Rowing Championships in Subotica, Serbia. This was the largest squad OBUBC has ever sent to EUSA of 26 athletes, with every athlete coming home with a medal. On finals day, in truly testing conditions of 16mph cross-headwinds, the Men’s 4- comprising of mainly first-year students led from the first stroke, finishing a length clear of the field to win gold. The Men’s 2- had a slightly more interesting race, rowing through the crew from Proteus, NED at halfway and holding off a late charge from German Olympians Munski & Johannesen to win gold
Temple Cup and Ladies Plate Champions!
In a year of records, OBUBC achieved one more – retention of a title, and attaining another. This year at Henley Royal Regatta, the Boat Club defended their title in the Temple Challenge Cup. Formed of an entirely new crew involving five first-year’s led by Head of the River winners Matt Hnatiw and Will Hall, they were guided brilliantly up the course by Charlie Clarke in the coxing seat laying down an unbelievable line. The crew stormed out to a length and held on all the way up the track to take the win. In a year of unbelievable work and belief, this is a fine reward for their efforts.
Women’s Henley report
Women’s Henley 2017 saw Brookes crews compete across six different events, and after Friday morning’s time trials and first round races in the afternoon, it was clear that it would be a strong Brookes showing with all six crews making it easily through to Saturdays quarter finals. Brookes would go into the weekend in the following events – Elite LW2x, Academic 8+, Senior 4-, Senior 4x, Senior 2x and Academic 4+. On the Saturday, the Senior 2x and Academic 4+ were unfortunately knocked out in tough races against strong opposition, but with four crews through to finals day it was the strongest showing of depth ever seen from the Brookes
British national record – 5:30.8 – Marlow Regatta
With world records falling at World Cup II in Poznan, OBUBC were breaking records of their own once again, this time at Marlow Regatta. Brookes’ Ladies Plate crew won the final of Championship 8’s, setting a new Brookes record and British national record of 5:30.84, with the Temple crew also setting another all-time British student record of 5:34.26. It was a thrilling race to watch, with both crews showing relaxed classy form as they went at it hammer & tongs, over a length up on the rest of the field. Both these crews will be fighting for red boxes in the Ladies Challenge Plate and the Temple Challenge Cup. There was further
Top 3 Places at Met Regatta
Out of 71 crews, OBUBC came away from Met Regatta with the top 3 placings in the Championship 8’s, taking home both the Championship title and the Academic pennant. With the 1st boat, this is a culmination of 3 – 4 years of hard work from eight of last year’s Temple Cup winners, looking to continue this unbeaten season into the Ladies Challenge Plate at Henley Royal Regatta. This is also very exciting to see not one but two new Temple crews forging out of the Brookes program, and establishing themselves as the first two UK favourite crews going into the competition. With Marlow Regatta approaching in 2 weeks, all crews will be looking to continue
New club record – 5:35 – at Ghent International
It was another record-setting weekend for the men, this time switching from Nottingham to the Watersportlaan in Ghent, Belgium. The first few early rounds saw all the Brookes boat progress through to their respective finals in the Senior 4+, 4x and 8+ categories. In the 8+ event, Brookes put on a show for the spectators, putting the top 3 crews all under 5:39, and ahead of crews from Leander and Thames. The winning crew clocked in at an impressive 5:35 – a new OBUBC record for men’s 8’s, and breaking the Ghent course record that had stood since 1990 with not one, but two crews. This is also the first time the
Ghent Regatta ’17 – Women’s club record
Following on from a very strong showing at BUCS Regatta, the OBUBC women’s squad went in full force to Ghent International Regatta in Belgium, to test themselves against some of Europe’s best club programs. Super Saturday saw the women’s squad bring home gold medals in every event entered, with Alex Styles in LW U23 1x, Emily Green in U23 1x and the LW 2x of Imogen Mackie & Jen Sager all coming in first in their respective events. On the Sunday, Zoe Taylor and Robyn Armstrong raced hard to a silver medal in the U23 2x category, having been part of the 8’s racing on the Saturday. The highlight of the
Making history at BUCS 2017
OBUBC made history in many ways at last weekend’s BUCS Regatta. Entering a record number of crews for the club, across all three days of racing, saw Brookes come away with a combined 123 medals – including 41 golds, 51 silvers and 31 bronze medals. For the first time ever, OBUBC entered two crews into Saturday’s Championship 8’s event. The men’s 1st VIII came away with the gold medal for the 4th year running (the longest streak of any university), with the 2nd VIII securing the bronze medal – this is the first time that any university has ever medalled with two crews in Championship 8’s. Brookes’ women also had their strongest
