Carla Devlin to speak at this year’s Taurus Dinner
We are delighted to announce that Carla Devlin (née Ashford) will be speaking at this year’s Taurus Dinner, which takes place at Phyllis Court on 21 March. Carla rowed at Brookes from 1998-2004 and represented Great Britain at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Carla took part in the latest series of SAS: Who Dares Wins and made it to the final 4 recruits, with the final episode airing yesterday (11th February). We chatted to Carla about learning to row at Brookes, her favourite races, making it onto the squad and what got her through the physical and mental tests that were thrown at her during her time on the
Quintin Head Report
A strong showing at Quintin Head saw the men’s squad post a 1-2-3 and the women’s squad narrowly miss out on the win after a close race with the University of London. The men’s 1st VIII were an impressive 29 seconds ahead of the rest of the field- with athletes returning from the GB Rowing Sierra Nevada training camp joining the rest of the squad where there were 5 men’s and 3 women’s eights racing. The main squad have spent the last week at Wimbleball Lake in Somerset for their winter training camp, before heading to London for the first of the year’s Tideway Heads. In addition to the overall
GB 1st Assessment report
This weekend saw the GB Rowing 1st Assessment take place in Boston, Lincs- which marks the first step towards next year’s Olympic Games, U23 World Rowing Championships and FISU World University Championships. 48 Brookes athletes attended the testing, which comprised of a 2k ergo on Saturday followed by Sunday’s 5k water test. In the morning division, Josh Bugajski, who won a bronze medal at this summer’s World Rowing Championships in the Men’s Eight, finished fastest of the Brookes athletes in the men’s pairs- partnered by James Rudkin. Their second place finish was followed by Morgan Bolding in fourth and Rory Gibbs close behind in fifth. Matthew Tarrant rounded off the
Upper Thames Head Report
The first race of the season for most athletes was Upper Thames Head this weekend, where five men’s crews and four women’s crews raced in the afternoon division. The race provided a good opportunity for the crews to gain race experience in the absence of the British Rowing Championships, which are normally held at the end of October. The men posted a 1-2-3 with the three fastest times of the day. With the 1st VIII rested following the Head of the Charles Regatta the previous weekend, the 2nd VIII took the honours, 21 seconds ahead of the next fastest club. The women’s 1st VIII posted the 16th fastest time of
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
