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
Best Ever Club Result at Women’s Head
Brookes’ women had the best set of squad results ever at this weekend’s Women’s Head, with 6th, 16th and 53rd place finishes across the 3 eights, with only Cambridge’s boat race squad beating Brookes to the accolade of highest combined first and second boats in the competition. The 1st VIII was a mere 4 seconds off 4th place, and with the return of GB international members to the event this year, the standard of competition again stepped up – signifying a great result for the Brookes squad with the highest ever finish for our 2nd and 3rd eights, the women’s squad had a fantastic showing on the Tideway. After a very successful head race
Brookes post 4 Fastest Times at Reading Head
Posting 4 of the 5 fastest times ever recorded at Reading Uni Head, OBUBC had a very good weekend in Reading, as well as getting extremely close to breaking the 2015 record of 12:41.3 with a time of 12:44.6. The Women’s 1st VIII also finished the 2nd division inside the course record with 14:45.6 – another strong showing of depth and speed through the boat club and both squads. To close out the head-racing season, the final two events before the Easter break are Women’s Head this Saturday (March 11th) and the Head of the River (March 25th). WINS: MEN Elite 8+ Senior 8+ IM1 8+ IM2 8+ IM3 8+ WOMEN Senior 8+ W IM2
113 tankards top off Wallingford Head
OBUBC went one better than last year, bringing home 113 pots to 2015’s 109 – winning 17 of 19 categories entered – marking this as the strongest showing ever by BROOKES|Rowing at Wallingford Head. On a gorgeous winter morning with still waters and blue skies, the women brought home twice as many category wins this year, with the 1st VIII winning Senior & Elite 8’s in the fastest women’s time, and the 2nd VIII trumping opposition in IM1 and IM2 8’s. The women’s program continues to go from strength to strength, and highlights the ever-increasing depth and standard across the squad. Without a helpful tailwind this year, the men’s 1st VIII were only 7
Scullers Head & GB Trials Report
Jamie Copus came frustratingly close to retaining the headship of Scullers Head this year. After winning in 2014, and with 2015 cancelled due to bad weather, he went off bow #1 and came home 3rd in a stronger field than in 2014. 2 weeks later at the GB Rowing Team’s 2nd Trials Assessment at Caversham, Brookes athletes had a good set of results in their respective boat classes – Matthew Tarrant came 2nd in the M2- with Alan Sinclair, and Annie Withers had a good first trial in the W1x in her first season with the GB Senior squad. Jamie Copus won the LM1x trial, with fellow OBUBC member Joel Cassells coming 2nd.
Brookes place 3 VIII’s ahead of every university 1st VIII
At the British Senior Championships this weekend, the boat club took 112 athletes to Nottingham for the first race of the new season. Representing the club in 12 eights and a 4x, both the men’s and women’s squads had a very strong showing, with the largest contingent of men & women ever to represent Brookes at any competition. The women’s 1st VIII finished a solid 5th in a very close final of Elite VIII’s, with the best women’s 8+ field the British Championships have ever seen – only just behind Oxford’s 1st VIII, with the 2nd VIII going on to come a close second in the C-final. The men’s squad emulated last year’s
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
Raking in European golds at EUSA
OBUBC are now double European Champions in the men’s and women’s blue riband 8’s events. It was great to see a repeat of BUCS Regatta earlier this year, where OBUBC took home the Championship titles in both the men’s and women’s categories Members of the squad went to Zagreb, Croatia to contest events at the EUSA European University Championships, with BROOKES|Rowing made up the largest contingent of the GB Universities squad, with 20 athletes representing in three events. The Women’s squad continued with more firsts since HRR, winning their 8+ event by 7 seconds over crews from Hamburg GER, Newcastle and Zurich SUI. On the men’s side, the guys repeated their win from last year, retaining their
HRR Win 28 – Temple Challenge Cup
What an end to an amazing year! OBUBC wins the Temple Challenge Cup for Student 8’s, having also won the Head of the River Race with an all-student crew, the BUCS Championship, and the National Championships. Through the early rounds, the VIII was tested by both tough opposition and adverse conditions, rowing into strong headwinds. Wednesday saw the crew hold their nerve against a fast-starting Dutch crew from Njord, Thursday comfortably dispatching Newcastle University. Friday and Saturday saw them break clear of two top American lightweight programs by halfway, from Columbia and Yale respectively, to book a place in the final against long-term rivals Harvard from the USA. Burying demons for coach Henry Bailhache-Webb, having
