First and Third Trinity Boat Club
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The Club's Results

Cambridge 99's Regatta, May Term 2010

1st men's VIII (1st division)

Coxed by: Natasha Menell

Semi finals
Beat Magdalene by 2/3 of a course length
This race, being our first outing of the year, was the real acid test of the revolutionary weight training and "nutrition" programme that we've been following since September.

The first stroke, often cited as the most important of the race, was excellent, fully connected yet remarkably explosive. This, combined with some judicious bow pair tapping between "attention" and "go", gave us a 3/4 length lead. For the second stroke, we pushed for clear water. We drove the heels into the footplate and literally catapulted our stern clear of their bow. By the third stroke, the boat was moving quickly enough that we were able to stride into our "power clean" rhythm at rate 28.

After 20 strokes we had increased our lead to three lengths of clear water, and Natasha called a three stroke push to extend this to "a considerable margin". It felt good, but we heard a passer-by remark that we looked to be "some five lengths" ahead, so we put in another three stroke burn to remove any possible doubt that we were completely dicking on them.

At this stage, it became clear that our lack of aerobic conditioning could cost us in the second half of the race, so we conserved some energy by halving the stroke rate. This wasn't quite enough, so we easied at the railway bridge and allowed the boat to drift across the finishing line, leaving Mordling to flounder in our tsunami. (Tom C)
Final
Lost to Downing by 1/2 a boat length
This was an exciting race for us; Downing achieved "Champs" status last weekend and seem to be the crew to beat. Again we were on the meadows side and started well, but in the second half of the reach they established a solid lead. We came back a bit when the river turned in our favour, but never got within striking distance.

We were pleased with the improvement between the two races, in spite of tired legs, and the result is rather better than last year's sparring.

Thanks are due to Mr Gray for subbing, and to Downing and Magdalene for getting involved. (Tom C)

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