GB Trials 2010: After the long four hour drive through the wind and rain from London to Boston, Lincolnshire [a mere 22 miles from the awesome seaside resort of Skegness], several of the ICBC contingent wondered “What the hell are we doing here?”; the answer – the GB Rowing Team’s first assessment of the year and BUCS Small Boats Head. This exhausting weekend consists of a 2km ergo test on the Saturday, followed by 5km races on the Sunday in singles (for all GB trialists and any students fancying their chances at taking a BUCS medal), double sculls and pairs (for the remaining available BUCS points). Despite having a depleted squad (just nine Imperial students) due to multiple injuries and illnesses, ICBC put in a sterling effort and walked away with some impressive feats of fitness and 22 BUCS points.

 

Photo by Don McLachlan 

With just the erg to focus on, Saturday was a very tense day for all. The hall was very simple – one sports hall, 20 ergs laid out in two rows cornered off but still visible so all could witness the fate awaiting them. All athletes were measured for height, weight and arm span before the moment when they’d face some of the biggest names in British rowing. ICBC can hold their heads proudly as eight out of fifteen rowers beat their personal bests.

IC had four representatives in the under 23 heavyweight men’s category; Leo Carrington, Dom Meyrick-Cole, Ben Spencer-Jones and Simon Steele. Called up in alphabetical order, Carrington was first to face the erg and pulled his second best time ever, but unfortunately was an agonisingly 0.3secs off the GB cut off time of 6mins 20secs. Meyrick-Cole managed to knock out a PB, which was then followed by a further two PBs from Spencer-Jones (6mins 19.4secs) and Steele (6mins 21.9 secs – again so close to the cut off). Alistair Hudson and Matt Whaley were not trialling for the GB squad but still valiantly pulled 6mins 24.2secs (PB) and 6mins 9.5secs respectively. Next to face the erg was the women’s squadron. Sport Imperial’s Zoë Lee added to the list of PBs (7mins 4.6secs) and two more impressive times were recorded from Leonora Kennedy (7mins 3.1secs) and Christina “The Telegraph Sports Correspondent” Duffy (7mins 12.8secs).  Chloe Symmonds also had her first fling with GB trials, and made it down to weight easily and under the cut off time with a score of 7mins 35.8secs.

IC had a strong lightweight contingent on show, where more PBs were demolished by Josh Bulter, [the infamous] Jamie Kirkwood and Tom Pearson (6mins 19.3secs/6mins 27.3 secs/6mins 36.7secs respectively). Sam Scrimgeour and recent IC Alumni Alex Gillies also put themselves in solid positions for the rest of the weekend’s racing with times of 6mins 32.0secs and 6mins 32.2secs respectively.

After a quick paddle that evening, the squad settled into an Italian meal. After an unfortunate event where a piece of metal ended up within Jamie’s pasta, the not-so-unlucky northerner got his food for free [suspicions on whether Jamie’s rivals had paid the kitchen staff for this sabotage are as yet unconfirmed]. The squad awoke early on Sunday morning, after some interesting sleeping arrangements (boys in double beds and all the banter that ensued) to bright sunshine... with winds of up to 16mph. Fortunately, especially for the lightweights, it was to be a tail wind. Division by division, the results were released and all of ICBC were happy to see Alumni George Whittaker had won GB heavyweight trials overall. Steele brought home IC’s quickest single time of the day (19:31.3 – 15th in BUCS). Further solid performances came from Meyrick-Cole (19:45.0 - 51st GB trialist), Carrington (19:50.0 – 21st in BUCS) and Spencer-Jones (20:07.7 – 72nd GB trialist, 33rd in BUCS). Kennedy and Lee continued to go from strength to strength as they both were in the top ten overall with times for the women’s single of 20:58.3 (8th overall) and 21:09.8 (10th overall, 2nd in BUCS for KCL) respectively.

Kirkwood, continues to have a golden glow around him as he smashed his way to win the lightweight trials, and BUCS LM1x (for Roehampton University unfortunately).  Further lightweight success continued for Scrimgeour (18:44.2 – 12th Lwt GB trialist), Butler (18:44.5 – 13th Lwt GB trialist), Gillies (18:55.9 – 17th Lwt GB trialist) and Pearson (19:37.1 – 35th Lwt GB trialist, 7th BUCS). Symmonds also put in a strong performance in the women’s lightweight single (21:52.2 – 12th Lwt GB trialist, 9th BUCS).

 

Photo by Don McLachlan 

IC also fielded a further five boats with the aim of gaining BUCS points and medals. In the doubles, Spencer-Jones and Hudson came 6th in a time of 17:55.9, while the W2x of Duffy and Selina Graham came 4th in a time of 20:30.0. Unfortunately due to the absence of many of the club’s bowsiders; due to man flu/busted joints/doctors orders etc, the lightweight men’s double had to be withdrawn and it was down to four strokesiders to race the pairs. On top of this, chaos nearly ensued when the pleasure cruiser, the “Boston Belle”, decided the start of the third and final division would be the perfect time to head down the centre of the river, heading directly towards the fifty boats coming in the opposite direction. Fortunately, disaster was averted and the Belle pulled into the side. In the Men’s Championship Pairs, Imperial A (Steele/Carrington), having already successfully overtaken Durham B, were heard from the bank employing a Kirkwood Tiger, a now well known winning mechanism, with 100m to go and they raced their way into fourth place (18:51.8). Imperial B (Whaley/Pearson) put in another storming performance overtaking “three and a half crews” over the 5km course and beat Imperial A by five seconds to bring home the Bronze medal (18:46.9). The women’s pair of Symmonds and Duffy also brought home the bacon coming in second (21:12.9) behind a very strong Durham crew.

 

Photo by Don McLachlan 

All in all, the weekend was a success and, in time honoured tradition, McDonalds was eaten on the way home with delight, even by the conscientious lightweights. With Fours Head of the River less than two weeks away, ICBC has little time to reflect and needs to be ready for a few more miles on the home water of the Tideway.

Libby Richards