All race reports for Ahmad Akra
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 3rd division
Posted as: Ahmad
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One nice thing was that after a long day of miserable weather conditions, shortly before this race, the weather changed very quickly from "miserable" to "perfect for rowing".
I was not particularly impressed by our start (Even though we began the first draw at exactly the same time with remarkable accuracy, when the marshal said "go", I just heard one massive clunk from the oar gates when all 8 of us started pushing simultaneously). After the start, Maggie III were about 1/4 length ahead of us. And even though we pushed during that race like we've never pushed before, we never got back that cursed 1/4 length. We put down every thing we got, Adam was going at rate 37. Steven and Tim were completely furious. Yining tried every call and every combination of calls to find more energy in us somewhere. But that 1/4 length was so stubborn. Until...
Somewhere in the last quarter of the race we started to die. The effort we spent during all the races that day was taking its toll. Maggie III extended their lead to about 1/2 length (Edit: I learned later that this was because they took a short cut around the corner through our side and had blade collisions with us which sent our much lighter crew unstable and cost us some distance, it wasn't because we were dying) when one of Maggie's rowers caught an overhead crab! However, 3 strokes later, he had pulled his blade out of the water, over his head and everything was back to normal.
I did not even know that you can recover from an overhead crab so quickly.
Their fast recovery from the crab meant that we only gained back 1/2 a length and we were merely level with them. But because we were out of power and because we had a few small crabs ourselves at the same time as well as a big crab from me :-(, they managed to push us again 1/2 a length before we reached the finish line.
We were close to winning our division. We felt slightly miserable for losing until the marshal told us to come to Pembroke BC later to be awarded runner up glass trophies. This piece of news cheered us up significantly. Since it means that we will get at least something after all this work.
Later, I was quite amused with the presentation ceremony. As there wasn't any! They just handed Tim a box of glasses, and he met the rest of us in a poorly lit corner under the Pembroke boat house, and gave each person his glass.
I have to especially thank all of Neil, Yimin, Simon, Alex Barrell, James Dixon and Matt Crowe for helping us survive throughout the day, by carrying our kit and cheering for us during races. This was definitely a memorable day for me. Good work M3.
Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2012 - 2nd division
Posted as: Ahmad
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Near the start line, I take one look at them and I see 8 body builders ready to race with us. But we never lost faith because physical strength is not everything in this sport. So we raced as hard as we could but it did not work.
Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2012 - 2nd division
Posted as: Ahmad
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Event: Champion of the Thames Eights Head 2012 - Men's 4th div. Mays
Posted as: Ahmad
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In any case. From the boathouse, I came out like a boss wearing just socks on my feet before I realized; the days of Black Prince are over, we are back in Richard Church and I better put those shoes back on before somebody notices.
We paddled all the way to the highway bridge carried gently by Thornton's polite bankparty calls (All love and respect to Thornton). We stayed near the railway bridge for a few minutes while Artin, the 3-man, receives his pre race hug and while I wrap my hands with green tape and thank John Shaw, the bow-man, for providing the tape. Then we set off to the starting line.
We did a complete start sequence with squared blades! And it was a good start. Even though Matt, the 4-man, lost one of his foot-straps and had to row the entire distance with only one secured foot.
A few hundred meters after the start it felt like people had given up already, because the boat speed dropped considerably. Until Alex, the coxswain, said that we were approaching the finish line, and suddenly the boat was going much faster again.
During the race, I quite enjoyed the sight of Maggie M4 behind us getting smaller and smaller and ever so smaller until finally disappearing behind the horizon.
We paddled back to the boathouse, and once there, some crew members were keen on washing the boat, something our crew have not done before (Not me at least), it was an interesting experience, and I loved the part where everybody receives a cold shower simultaneously when we turn the boat over above our heads.
In conclusion, I thank Michael for volunteering to bankparty. I wish we had won something but we weren't lucky enough I'm afraid.
Event: Head of the River Race 2012 - In3
Posted as: Ahmad
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One guy did not seem particularly bothered that his hands were absolutely shredded. I only noticed them by accident and was quite shocked.
Other (more senior) M1 hands made me feel sorry only for the wooden oar handles that they were gripping and twisting.
This is the best part of rowing when you: look pain in the eye and stand your ground (or in the case of the guy with the shredded hands: remain cool and not even notice the pain's presence). Big admirer.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Saturday
Posted as: Ahmad
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Even though Pembroke regatta results suggested that we were one of the fastest 3rd crews out there, we nevertheless got spoons for the Lent Bumps. Oh well, we really gave it everything we had but unfortunately it wasn't enough, sorry...
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Friday
Posted as: Ahmad
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The LBCs told us that Hughes Hall are a powerful first boat and the only reason they are rowing in the 3rd division is because they are a recent club and have not had the time to climb high up the bumps chart. So Simon's plan was simple... "Don't surge!". The idea was that we are most unlikely to row over with Hughes Hall chasing us so the second least likely thing was that we bump Clare II before they bump Churchill II. BTW, congratulations to Churchill II for making sure that we never had anyone to chase and bump on every single day of bumps. Well done indeed.
According to Simon, we had 90s to bump Clare II before Hughes Hall bump us, which meant that we should row at a very unsustainable speed for 90s. Since no other crew have held Hughes Hall for more than a minute. e.g. King's II were bumped by Hughes Hall only 6 lengths after the start.
So there goes the cannon, and M3 are absolutely nailing down every stroke, the rate was incredibly high causing the strokes to go out of sync, but nevertheless the power was awesome. We gained on Clare II initially, before Clare II quickly gained on Churchill II, and started to push frantically high themselves in order to bump Churchill II fast and get it over with. And as expected they bumped Churchill II too soon, leaving us to the slowly creeping Hughes Hall.
The sight of Churchill II and Clare II parked on the side was like a signal for us to give up especially that we were reasonably dead at that point. I experienced a familiar numbness in the head which I have had only twice before during the most extreme workouts.
Anyway Hughes Hall quickly came to overlap with our stern. Their 2-man was about to bash Yining's back with his blade when Yining shouted at Hughes Hall: "Hold it up!". FaT M3, being completely disciplined and obedient, also held up their boat upon hearing Yining's command! But thank God Hughes Hall held up their boat much faster, so nobody was hurt.
We held Hughes Hall for about 2.5 minutes, which is much longer than anyone had expected. Tomorrow, we need to avoid being bumped at all cost. It would look really bad if we get spoons, and I guarantee that the results so far are not a representation anyway of how good M3 actually are (maybe only for how terribly unlucky they are). Better luck for tomorrow.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Wednesday
Posted as: Ahmad
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After a good start, and 2 decent minutes into the race apparently all sorts of nasty things happened behind us. And our boat was forced to take a peculiar path along the river. At this stage Clare II were maybe around a length between their bow and our stern but in a very short span of time they were overlapping with our stern. Which I felt was really disappointing until Simon pointed out later that thanks to the ship wreckage behind us and our position in the river we were forced to take a path which was 10 meters longer than what Clare II had to take.
And then as the other reports explained, we didn't make it around that corner and were forced to stop and soon jump quickly out of the boat before the other crews accidentally ram into us while they are coming hot around the same corner.
Today it wasn't anyone's fault. And I enjoyed the race much more than yesterday. I was surprised that someone in the crew seemed a bit disheartened about this. First, this is not how M3 work, if someone makes a mistake, everyone else shares 1/9 of the mistake. Second, It really wasn't anyone's fault. This is BUMPS for you where everything is expected to go wrong. Let's all forget about today and restore our previous levels of cheerfulness. And if I find later (God forbids) that someone is still blaming themselves for the accident then I will not be happy.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Tuesday
Posted as: Ahmad
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I am quite angry at the moment. I went from "Ahmad" into just "mad". So listen up M3, tomorrow I don't want to row over. I want to bump Tit Hall back. And damn serious about it.
So I suggest you forget your human identities tomorrow because we'll transform into vicious masochistic animals. And we'll push the boat at a horrifying speed so they don't even know what hit them.
Edit: It was brought to my attention that Trinity Hall II are likely to bump Churchill II soon after the start, not giving us enough time to catch them so we are looking for a row over. But please this time lets not think about how long the course is going to take just think about pushing away as far as possible from Clare II.
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2011 - Cup
Posted as: Ahmad
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That was an awesome race between the best two crews in the competition and First and Third NM1 was like nothing Maggie had seen that day before or after that round. When we passed next to them the Maggie crew gave us a salute and spared us the humiliation of the three cheers.
Well done First and Third...
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 3rd division
Posted as: Ahmad
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We came back for this race after a ~3 hours break (break includes paddling to and from the boat house). By this time the wind had stopped and was replaced by rain which meant that all the dry clothes that I put on myself in the break became wet before the race had even begun.
I saw a lady who was bank partying for Caius III and she was in a state of happiness and pride, she told the guy next to her that she is so excited because Caius M3 are very fast and seem like they are going to actually win Pembroke Regatta, well mam, you didn't seem to have taken First and Third into account.
This race was very intense and very tight. The start was not bad and if I recall correctly we were level with the other crew after the start. But around the middle of the race they had overtaken us by 1/2 a length which was very frustrating and a feeling of hopelessness crept in when that 1/2 a length seemed like it was not going to get any shorter any soon.
Nevertheless it did get shorter soon. They soon got tired and started losing distance and we were level again after the railway bridge. It was very helpful when Yining pointed that out on the microphone: "they are level with us". Because some of us weren't aware of this yet, when Yining said that, all the feeling of hopelessness went away and we found energy to put down massive strokes and quickly take a lead ourselves of 1/4 length. At this point we were around 70 meters away from the finish and it was very unlikely that they could get the 1/4 length back so quickly. Just then, one of their rowers caught a nasty overhead crab taking their boat off its coarse. They had to stop quickly before crashing into the bank. This explains why we won "easily", even though we had to spend absolutely every bit of effort to hold Caius III till near the end. It would have been a lot more convenient for us if they caught their crab much earlier in the race.
Despite all the pain after the race, a good feeling of joy was shared between us, as we made it to the final race. M3 did not look dead after spending a long day racing tough crews, they just looked very happy and excited.
A couple of nice people offered their cars for us to sit inside and stay warm until the final race. They also offered us food and drink, it was great.
Edit: I remember the 10 seconds roar from Steven, it was impressive he could do that when on the other hand I could barely whisper at this stage.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 3rd division
Posted as: Ahmad
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We were on the meadow side of the river, and preparing to start the race. The marshals called "attention", Yining raised her voice to tell the marshals on the bank to wait because our boat is still not aligned properly. But they ignored her and called for "go" while she was shouting on the microphone. Hence we did not hear the "go". All we knew is that Queen's IV had set off while we were still sitting there at front stops. It is easy to see why our panicky start that followed looked absolutely awful and took a large number of strokes before we were back together.
However we very quickly got back all the distance we lost and quickly pushed them away. After the railway bridge we were so far ahead that Yining called for a surge and a down 4. Everyone got our point and there was no reason to waste any more energy on this crew.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 3rd division
Posted as: Ahmad
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The main problem here is that we were exhausted from the first race with Clare III and the chilled break after that, while Pembroke III just arrived and were starting fresh.
The wind was even worse than how it was in the first race. And therefore the start was again miserable. I can't remember how many air strokes and crabs occurred during that start. But still we were 1/2 a length ahead of the other crew after that.
Near the railway bridge we were a good 2 lengths ahead of them when the effect of the first race started to creep into our arms and legs. The effect was bad. Very, very bad. Pembroke III started to gain on us and we simply had nothing left in the tank to push them away. My legs became paralysed and I had to take some strokes at arms only. John's hands were bleeding quite badly. It was frightening when they came so close that Adam at stroke could not make a full slide any more without hitting their boat. But then something mysterious happened (perhaps the fear adrenalin?) when our crew suddenly found the energy to push them away slightly (to 1 length distance) so that Adam is able to row properly again and we actually held them at 1 length distance all the way to the finish line.
Winning was nice, but everyone was in utter agony at the end of this race. And I couldn't help but scream my heart out at the end.
I was told later something interesting, every crew in the race is given one side of the river and it is against the rules for a crew to leave their side to the other side. Any crew that deliberately do that get disqualified because it is unfair to their opponents.
During our race with Pembroke III, after the railway bridge there was a Maggie women boat sitting right in the middle of our way. Hence obstructing our side of the river but not the side of our opponents. Yining (the cox) took a fast and excellent decision to go around the Maggie boat by moving to the river side of Pembroke III. We were not disqualified later for doing this because of the obstruction. Yining practically saved our race by acting quickly and not panicking.
This of course explains why Adam's blade almost hit their boat when they gained on us. We were actually on their side of the river trying to avoid that Maggie boat.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 3rd division
Posted as: Ahmad
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The wind that morning was insane. The waves were half a foot high or more which is something I have never seen on the Cam before. The waves were so massive that during the race when we leaned towards bow side for a second, this massive wave shows up and *splash* the wave is inside the boat and lands as is on Jason's lower back. This was not a good experience for Jason because that water was freezing cold.
Also to make rowing as hard as possible in this wind, the racing course is perfectly aligned so that we were rowing head opposite to the wind.
Compared to the races we had in Clare novices last term, this first race was not easy. We had a horrible start which I first attributed to our incompetence but Simon thought that the start was as good as it can be in such windy conditions.
After the start we were 1/3 of a length ahead of the other crew, this was gradually extended to 3 boat lengths by the middle of the race coarse after which they started gaining back on us again. However when they got alarmingly close, our men put the commitment back again and we got back the 3 lengths lead by the finish line. We were notified by the coaches that this was not supposed to happen and that no one in the crew should push any lighter when the opponents are few lengths behind.
After the finish, Clare III wished us luck and one of their rowers said that he hopes they had only lost to the eventual winners. I thought that was a nice thing to say from people who just lost the race to us. And frankly I kind of feel bad for Clare III, as they are quite good and yet they never even made it to Round 2, when every other crew in the division did.
We parked underneath the railway bridge waiting for the next round and watching other boats in the division racing the finish. At this time, we were soaked in Cam water, and the wind was very cold and fast which meant that most of us who did not bring enough dry kit were FREEZING to death. Special thanks to Neil for providing some of his own dry kit to keep us warm, it was great help.
One final note: While waiting, we watched and cheered for our M4 racing against some other crew, they were holding them by a hair (metaphorically speaking) almost all the way to the finish before the other crew overtook M4. It was so intense that just watching this race warmed me up for a minute or two.
Event: Robinson Head 2012 - 1st division
Posted as: Ahmad
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Given the freezing temperature, M3 pushed off wearing plenty of heavy clothing. Just before the race we had to give the kit off to Miles (the coach) in the most peculiar way since we were not able to park next to where he was standing on the bank. Adam at stroke seat was collecting items from the crew members behind him and literally throwing them off to Miles from the distance. At some point of course one item (belonging to Steven) fell into the water, and Steven's reaction was a bit fantastic.
Miles was not very enthusiastic at the beginning because M3 haven't rowed any high rate pieces this term, in fact M3 haven't rowed at all in the last 2 weeks thanks to ice. So Miles said that we shall *try* rate 32 and apply firm pressure.
Of course we all know 32 is not Adam style, he was only happy with 34 and still, the boat was fast and stable and the crew were rowing nicely together. I could also swear it was 36+ at some point but the cox box that Ellie was carrying decided then to go bust.
--
"We'll try rate 32, and if it goes wrong I'll signal Ellie and she'll take the rate down until things look stable" said Miles.
--
The race was short and intense, Ellie turned out to be a motivator and she was immersed in the action. There were some motivational shouts from Steven and occasional ones from me.
Excessive splashing was an obvious problem in today's race. But nevertheless...
M3 finished at 9th place overall, 9s ahead of the next M3 and 11s behind our M2. We beat all 5 out of 5 M3 crews and 6 out of 8 M2 crews (excluding our M2). Not bad at all, well done.
Event: Novice Fairbairn Cup 2011 - 1st division
Posted as: Ahmad
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Seconds after the race started Sam's feet came off the straps to the crew's dismay, rather amazingly however Sam continued rowing for the entire fairbairn distance at full speed without his foot straps! and by doing so saving our race. Thanks Sam...
A rowing expert who was watching the race described our first half as "absolutely scorching", the technique and the commitment were in a state where the boat was flying effortlessly on the water. Yining did a great job steering around tricky corners and calling for a surge every time the crew got over excited.
The moment of truth came when we passed under the railway bridge. While most other crews look miserable at that point, Yimin pointed out that we looked relatively fresh. Not only that but our technique was again as good as the first half of the race at that point. The crew then gave it everything they had left to get to the end finishing at 3rd place overall, with only 2s behind Christ's.
"You looked like you could happily do another 500m!" said Yimin.
We came off the boat, and walked to the reach to cheer for NM2 and watch other boats crash into each other and also observe the exhausted rowers while they struggle to even move their blades in the air.
The paddling back to the boathouse was hilarious, the crew celebrated their upgrade into "seniors" by switching their positions in the boat, splashing each other with the blades and even attempting to revolt against Yining and take control of the boat!
This team is exactly how it should be and I am very glad to have been part of it.
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2011 - Cup
Posted as: Ahmad
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