The Club's Results
Cambridge Regatta, Summer 2017
Cat (Senior VIIIs)
1st men's VIII | |||
bow | Christopher Elsby | 2 | Matthew Crowe |
3 | Samuel Kittle | 4 | Aaron Lewis |
5 | Josh Hampson | 6 | Peter Robinson |
7 | Forbes Anderson | str | Robert Shearme |
Qualifying
2nd
Time: 3:34
2nd
Time: 3:34
Since it was an out-of-term-time event, we were a scratch crew and many of us had not been rowing at all recently. The existence of the 9AM time trial round caught some of us (especially those who were travelling in from outside Cambridge) by surprise, so we were also somewhat sleep-deprived.
The row to the start was, unsurprisingly, not very tidy or together, but I think it was better than might have been expected and it was improving over time.
The race piece seemed fairly solid for a scratch crew, and we could tell we were gaining on the boat in front, but I think our pace suffered a bit from under-rating - I don't think we spent much time above rate 31.
Our time was 2nd out of 5 in the Open Eights category.
The row to the start was, unsurprisingly, not very tidy or together, but I think it was better than might have been expected and it was improving over time.
The race piece seemed fairly solid for a scratch crew, and we could tell we were gaining on the boat in front, but I think our pace suffered a bit from under-rating - I don't think we spent much time above rate 31.
Our time was 2nd out of 5 in the Open Eights category.
I was not expecting to turn up to row in such a sat boat. I am incredibly proud of how good we looked despite most of not having been on a river all summer.
Final
Lost to Cantabs Fiddian by 2.5 lengths
Lost to Cantabs Fiddian by 2.5 lengths
We knew that we were the underdogs in this race, since Cantabs had been 14 seconds faster than us in the time trial, but we also knew that we had room to improve. Our race plan was essentially to go hard off the start and try to keep up with them as long as possible.
They took quite a lot of distance out of us on the first 3 strokes, but we got most of it back as we wound up. Unlike in the time trial, we took the rate fairly high (I think it was something like 37) and kept it there as long as we could. I think our pace roughly matched Cantabs, sitting the same distance behind them, until shortly before the railway bridge when we began to tire and they began to move away.
They took quite a lot of distance out of us on the first 3 strokes, but we got most of it back as we wound up. Unlike in the time trial, we took the rate fairly high (I think it was something like 37) and kept it there as long as we could. I think our pace roughly matched Cantabs, sitting the same distance behind them, until shortly before the railway bridge when we began to tire and they began to move away.
Well we knew that Cantabs were about 13 seconds faster than us but we weren't going to let them go for victory without a fight. We certainly did that. Although we blew a few hundred metres in, we held on to contact up to the railway bridge and kept the grind on as hard as we could. I am very excited to see what a crew from this squad, who will have trained together for a term, can do.
Links
Full Summer 2017 Cambridge Regatta results
1st men's VIII Cambridge Regatta results archive