EUBC Women in action.
Head of the River
7th November brought about the first head race of the year. 32 EUBC members travelled up to London to compete in the 4's Head of the River Race - a 7km race in quads and fours on the tidal part of the River Thames. The weather and water conditions were a strong contrast to what we usually experience on the Exeter canal, with heavy winds and rainfall roaring all afternoon. Everyone dealt with the conditions well and there was a lot of fast racing, with the a win for the W IM2 4+.
The first boat down the course was the women's Elite lightweight quad. The boat with 3 fresher's and 1 returner had a tricky task ahead of them, being in such a competitive category. They dealt with the conditions exceptionally well, coming home second.
The next boat to race was the men's IM1 quad. After having very limited training time together, the boys performed well in the conditions, which were particularly bad for the first half of the crews racing.
Next were the two IM2 men's coxes fours. The first boat, stroked by Sam Fotheringham, showed good speed at the beginning of the race, but unfortunately, due to injury, the race did not got to plan. Nevertheless, the initial speed of the boat proves promising for the remainder of the season. The second boat, stroked by Charlie Bevan, was expected to face a challenge, having only been in the boat once before. Sadly, the conditions got the better of them, yet there were still many positives to be taken from the race.
Exeter also boated a women's IM2 quad, who raced exceptionally well and finished with a result that they can be pleased with, coming 18th out of 30 crews. This shows the depth of the senior women's squad at Exeter.
Later on, the two women's fours had their turn to race. The IM1 coxed four, steered by Sophie Wrixon, had a strong first half of the race, especially considering that 3 of the girls in the boat had just returned from trials and recovered from illnesses a week ago. They smoothly passed several boats in front of them and kept on their line to finish 5th.
Last, but not least, was the women's IM2 coxed four. The girls had a strong race and a good line. Starting in a lower category, they managed to pass 7 boats, and then used them as motivation to push off. The girls rounded off a good race day by winning their category - well done to Isabel Cole, Amy Ward, Emma Cockcroft, Kristi Stone and Nancy Newberry.
We extend our thanks to Dulwich College and Eric Simms from Kangua for lending us three boats. We would also like to thank our coach and High Performance Team (Richard Tinkler, Lorna Tinkler and Harry Townsend), as well as the students who came down to support us, and also the families that hosted us. We look forward to getting more members of our squad racing during our next race at Wallingford.
Date: 20 November 2015
