Dominant Performance at Wallingford Head
BROOKES|Rowing produced the fastest men’s and women’s crews in every boat class with a dominant performance on their home stretch at Wallingford Head this weekend Four first years helped the second eight to overall victory in a course record of 13:26.4, winning by just a second over the first eight. Henry Bloise-Brooke, Seb Newman, Ari Cohen and Matt Rowe all started studying at Oxford Brookes in September, and this result shows how well they have made the transition to university rowing. The win, in Open 8+, built on their performance in the morning division, where they posted the fastest time and claimed victory in Open U23 8+. In addition to these
Record Placing at Four’s Head
Following the GB Rowing Team 1st Assesment in Boston, Lincs in early November; four Brookes athletes headed to London this weekend to race in the quadruple sculls event at The Fuller’s Head of the River Fours. The lightweight crew, stroked by Ben Reeves and also containing senior internationals Peter Chambers, Jamie Copus and Niels van Zandweghe were the sole Brookes entry this year. Despite only forming the crew earlier in the week, the quad finished in third place- a club record and only losing out to two heavyweight Leander crews by 5 and 11 seconds respectively. BROOKES|Rowing return to their home stretch next week to race at Wallingford
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
