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 by just over a length. In the Women’s 2- event, it was clearly ever only going to be a contest between Brookes and Durham for the gold. The crews were neck and neck coming toward the line, with Durham just sneaking the verdict by an agonising 2 feet – but extremely impressive to medal at the Boat Club’s first showing in this event.

The Men’s and Women’s 8+ put together two very powerful performances in their event despite the wind. Both crews held their cool under pressure from crews around them, took the lead at 750m gone and never looked back. The men won by 2 lengths, but the women won by an incredible 16 seconds over crews from Nereus and Switzerland. This now makes OBUBC 3-time European champions in the Men’s 8+, as well as 2-time European Champions in the Women’s 8+, building on their wins at last year’s competition.

Brookes’ medal count made a huge contribution to the overall tally once again, meaning the GB Universities Team brought home the Team Rowing Salver for the second year running.

You can read the University’s report of EUSA on their website here.