Divide and Conquer – Holland Beker to Metropolitan

For the first time ever, the Boat Club went to two separate regattas over the same weekend. Some crews went to the Holland Beker in the Netherlands, while others stayed UK-bound to race at the Metropolitan Regatta at the Dorney Lake Olympic venue.

In Holland, the men’s squad came away with a strong set of results across different boat classes. The 4+ finished a very tight second to Orca, while the 4- came from the back of the field with a terrific last 500 to win gold, ahead of crews from Thames, Nereus and Cambridge. The men’s 1st VIII found themselves once again racing old foes Nereus and Leander, with the three crews overlapping on the finish line of the final – themselves an isolated race ahead of the field, with all posting decent times into a fair headwind. Students Jamie Copus and Ben Reeves also raced, this time under GBR colours in Senior LM4x and U23 LM4- respectively, both winning their events.

On the Women’s side, Imogen Mackie had a cracking result, winning the U23 Lightweight 1x event. The Women’s 8+ had a great weekend of racing also, and were very competitive in a strong field featuring the Dutch Olympic and U23 crews, GBR developments boats, and an Imperial College non-student 8+ to name a few, as well as strong competition from around the Netherlands.

Back across the Channel, Brookes crews had a solid weekend at Met Regatta, taking home a total of 32 medals in 5 of Saturday’s events, and a further 13 medals on Sunday  – winning the IM2, WIM2 and IM3 8’s, as well as IM1 4x and WIM2 1x. On Sunday, four of the winning crews were moved up to the event above. The 2nd VIII (now IM1) once again retained the Forster Cup for IM1 8’s, coming 3rd in the A-final and almost taking the full Challenge Eights title narrowly behind Thames and U.L. The IM1 4x that came second to the winning Brookes crew on the Saturday went on to take the Sunday title – the bowman of which has now won IM1 4x at the Metropolitan 3 years in a row.

BROOKES|Rowing went in search of hard racing and tough competition this last weekend, and certainly found what it was looking for – taking home some silverware as an apt reward. For the men, Marlow Regatta is the next port of call in two weeks, with Henley Women’s Regatta the next focus for the women’s squad.