Officer Bellion recounts Imperial's success at GB trials and BUCS last weekend...

13 turned out to be a lucky number last weekend for Imperial College Boat Club as this was the number of rowers who made their way up to Boston for the first set of national trials; the highest number for a long time. The trials involved a 2km test on the rowing machine on Saturday followed by a 5km time trial in single sculls on Sunday, with the ultimate aim of selecting crews to go to the U23 and senior world championships. The IC rowers knew they would be up against the best in the country and that anything less than the best would not be good enough.

Pair’s Head of the River 2009: The once believed permanent scowl of ICBC’s Adam Seward was momentarily wiped when news broke that he had steered the fastest ICBC boat of the day. The crew of Simon Steele and Adam Seward finished 9th overall and second in category in a time of 12:25. The Pair’s Head of the River is a 4 kilometre race downstream from Chiswick to Hammersmith Bridge on the ebb tide and 6 IC boats made the top 50 out of 372 entrants.  

Rund um Wannsee 2009: Described as ‘The regatta of the East and West’ the Rund um Wannsee took place on October 3rd, the Day of German Unity. This is the 8th year that elite national and international rowers have competed in the longest eights races in the world; a 15 km circuit around the water systems of the Wannsee in Berlin. Attracting elite rowers from across the world it was no surprise to see ICBC legends Ole Tietz and Adam Freeman-Pask on the start line. The All-Star Lightweight crew finished an impressive 3rd (00:48:58) only 24 seconds behind Iztok Cop’s winning Heavyweight All-Star 8+ (00:48:34) after an intense period of clashing with the Polish national crew.

Marlow Rower’s Revenge 2009: IC's Doctor Dreamy Hugh Mackenzie and Kat 'The Beast’ Holloway were fastest man and woman respectively at this year’s rower’s revenge triathlon. The race consisted of a 4km erg, 23.4 km bike and 7.15 km run at Marlow Court Gardens Leisure Complex in Higginson Park. This was Holloway’s first competitive race since WHR in 2007 due to a two year sabbatical from rowing after suffering a back injury. The cause of the injury is attributed to repetitive shock waves which spread through Holloway's body after news was released of Will Todd’s Henley victory in July of 2007.