Fastest Four Times in Club History
On the Saturday of Ghent Regatta Henry Swarbrick, Morgan Bolding, Rory Gibbs and Oliver Wilkes won the men’s coxless fours by 0.32 seconds. On Sunday, the new combination of Ed Grisedale, Quentin Antognelli, Henry Swarbrick and Oliver Wilkes rowed a sensational race to cross the line 2.49 seconds in front in a time of 5:53.31. This is believed to be the fastest time ever rowed by a British coxless four outside of the national team, also breaking the Ghent course record by 11 seconds. The men’s eights finished with a 1-2 on both days. On Sunday, the 1st 8 set a new all time club record and broke the Ghent
Close racing at the Windermere Cup
The BROOKES|Rowing Men’s 1st VIII recently returned from a week-long trip to Seattle, where they were invited by the University of Washington to take part in this year’s Windermere Cup. The race took place on the world-renowned Montlake Cut between Oxford Brookes, the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia. It is one of the highlights of the collegiate rowing calendar, with recent competitors including New Zealand, China and Great Britain. This year’s race was dubbed the “World Series” of university rowing because it featured the top crews from Britain, Canada and the United States. The race itself, which can be found here, started with a huge push
BROOKES|Rowing to race at Windermere Cup
BROOKES|Rowing will head to Seattle, USA to race in the Windermere Cup for the first time ever on 5th May. The Men’s 1st VIII will face the University of Washington and the Dutch National Team in what will be the first British crew to participate since Brookes alumni Scott Durant, Mason Durant and Matt Tarrant helped the Great Britain VIII to victory in 2014. The Huskies have only been defeated four times in the 31 year history of the event. It will be a busy weekend for BROOKES|Rowing, with the squad split between the USA and Nottingham, where the rest of the squad will look to defend a number of
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
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
New boats named for Rio Olympic medallists
On November 10th, the University welcomed Rio medallists Scott Durant and Olivia Carnegie-Brown back to campus, in order to celebrate their Olympic successes with the naming of two new 8’s in their honour, to be raced by the men’s and women’s 1st VIII’s later in the season. The ceremony was also to acknowledge the record-breaking accomplishments of the Boat Club’s performance in the 2015-16 season, across both the men’s and women’s squads. Vice Chancellor Alistair Fitt, Director of Sport Keith Kelly and the BROOKES|Rowing coaching staff were joined by a wealth of rowers past and present, as well as non-rowing students there to celebrate in our alumni’s success. Olivia Carnegie-Brown came
Brookes’ GB Summer – REPORT
Following in the footsteps of our medalling Olympians, OBUBC’s athletes had a very successful summer on the international circuit, representing at three different international events. At the U23 Worlds in Rotterdam, Ben Reeves achieved a bronze medal in the LM4-, to add to his other bronze in the same event last year. The men’s 4+ of Harry Brightmore (cox), Rory Gibbs, Matthew Aldridge and Michael Glover had a very strong regatta, winning their repechage strongly, but ended up a length behind the medals in an extremely tight field. At the Senior World Championships (also in Rotterdam), Joel Cassells came away with a fantastic bronze medal in the LM2-, considering the short amount of preparation time once his crewmate, Olympic spare
