The Club's Results

I have never had a successful Uni IVs race. In the past my crews have drawn the winners of the event, and suffered a fairly spectacular equipment failure. This race was dominated mostly by nerves, lack of training, and Downing.

After a very quick series of starting calls 'Firstandthirddowningattentiongo' I proceeded to air stroke through the start. No doubt because of this, we were rating 38 (fair higher than we had ever attempted in training) and Downing took a quick lead. Alex tells me we gained a little of it back, but at this point I was more concerned with getting my blade in the water.

The race then became an test of extreme cardiovascular fitness down the reach, overrating and losing ratio with every stroke. The final margin was 31 seconds.

When I decided to enter a IV for the competition, I did it to give meaning to our training. I figured at the very least it would give us a wake up call, possibly light a fire under the squad. The positive that we took from it, walking out of the crew room afterwards, was resolve. That's what I've seen in every outing since. (Julia A.)