Ghent International Regatta 2024

Over the weekend we had our whole squad out in Ghent, Belgium for the Ghent International Regatta. With a record number of entries, it was all set to be a weekend of brilliant racing against both UK and international crews with a changing cross-head wind all weekend.

On the Saturday, the women’s eights had a tremendous day of racing with 3 of the 4 women’s eights getting through to the A final and the 4^th into the B. In the A final, all 3 crews continued the great performances in the heat to come across the finish line in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd ahead of the two eights from Leander, the first time Brookes Women have pulled off such a feat at an international regatta with the 1^st VIII finishing 13 seconds ahead of the next non-Brookes crew. Our 4^th VIII also won the B final.

On the men’s side of things, we boated 7 eights onto the water for their heats. The results of the heats meant there were 3 Brookes crews in the B final and 3 Brookes crews in the A final.

The A final was a tight contest the whole way down the track against Brookes A and Leander after we managed to lead from the start, Leander pulled it back to cross the line just 0.3 seconds ahead of Brookes.

We also sent a men’s coxless four to Belgium who came up against local rivals Leander along with a strong German U23 crew. Brookes had a very impressive row in the heat, finishing 2 seconds ahead of Leander. However, in the final our 4- had to settle for the bronze medal in a competitive field.

We also had a Men’s double and Women’s quad racing across the weekend, helping all of our athletes pick up great racing experience against tough competition.

On the Sunday of racing, our women’s eights had another successful day of racing, collecting 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th in the A final alongside 5^th in the B final in a much larger entry pool.

The men’s eights had another day of competitive racing, with 3 Brookes crews gaining entry into the A final again as the winners of their heats and 2 going into the B final to gain some experience against some French and German U23 eights. In the final, Brookes had another strong start but as the race went on Leander managed to creep away to win the race by 1 second with Brookes taking home 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th.

In the 4-, it was Brookes and Leander again who broke away from the rest of the field. After being down by a length and a half at the 1k, Brookes managed to close the margin down to half a length and take-home 2^nd place.

With just a few weeks before the entire team head back across into Europe, the squad now embark on training camp in Wimbleball, Somerset this week.