EUBC Medallists
EUBC Do Battle at Boston
The annual BUCS Head was held on the last weekend of February, and EUBC made the long trek to Boston, Lincolnshire (home of GB Rowing Trials) to take part. In 2014, the BUCS Head had was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, and the same fate looked likely for 2015. To ensure a safe race, the organisers moved the Championship and Intermediate races to Saturday, and sadly cancelled the Beginner events. With a raging headwind and challenging conditions on the day, this proved to be the right decision.
In the first division, the Senior Men fielded three boats. The Champ 4+ had a storming race to finish 5th, just ten seconds behind bronze. The Champ 4- matched them to also finish fifth, in one of the toughest categories of the day. A new look Lightweight 4- raced well in challenging conditions for lighter crews, to finish 5th also. The Senior Women’s squad only boated a Lightweight quad, saving energy for the fours in division two. A tactical decision to focus on quality over quantity that paid off as the lightweight quad brought home a fantastic silver medal to round off the first division.
It was all guns blazing in the second division, the men racing a Champ 8+, an Intermediate 8+ and a Lightweight Quad. Racing on tired legs from the first division, the boys in the Champ 8+ fought hard into the headwind to take 7th in the blue ribbon event. The Intermediate 8+ combined well to mix power and experience, finishing 13th of 27 crews, but crucially only 18 seconds off a top 5 finish in a highly competitive category. The Lightweight men’s Quad, reunited after their strong performance at the Four’s Head in November, came 5th in a very fast field.
The women’s squad entered a Championship Quad, a Championship Coxless Four, a Lightweight Four and a Championship Coxed Four. The Champ Quad opened proceedings with a speedy 4th place finish, a gutting 4.7 seconds away from bronze. A very new combination in the Champ 4- managed the tough conditions well to equal them in finishing fourth. In a great race the Lightweight Four finished with a silver medal to accompany their lighty counterparts in the first division.
Without a doubt the performance of the day came from the Womens Championship Coxed four. The crew of Ana Almuedo-Castillo (Str), Emma Cockroft (3), Seun Olusanya (2), Jess Elkington (Bow) and Sophie Wrixon (Cox) tore the field apart to take a well-deserved win, breaking away to a 40 second margin over the rest of the field.
A hard days racing for both senior squads, with some gutsy performances and valuable BUCS points in the bank. Now the focus moves back into top Eights for the Women’s Eights Head on the 14th of March, and the Men’s Eights Head on the 29th, where each squad hopes to build on the strong results from the weekend.
Date: 3 March 2015
