Lightweight Quad Highest Placed British Crew By Clarice Chung
Following on from the success at the BUSA Regatta in May, the Boat Club qualified 5 crews for the European Universities Rowing Championships held in Zagreb over the last week of August; the Men’s and Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls, Men’s and Women’s Lightweight Quadruple Sculls and a Women’s Pair. However, due to logistical issues and increasing costs, only a small women’s squad made the journey to Croatia with Head Coach Steve Trapmore leading the way and hoping to inspire us all to victory with tales of how he stroked the GB eight to Olympic glory.
Arriving late Tuesday afternoon, there was just enough time for a quick tour of the rowing lake and its associated nudist beaches before settling into our home for the next few days, the student halls of Zagreb University. Their kitchens had clearly been well briefed and were over-zealously plying us with large amounts of pasta, potatoes and mystery meat. However, with the weigh-in imminent, the lightweights were left to indulge in some of Slimfast’s finest products whilst everyone else tucked into their 4 course meals.
Wednesday morning saw us rising early for a paddle to make the most of the cooler temperatures. This was, in theory, a good idea but it did leave us with nothing to do all afternoon. With the sun beating down on us and boredom setting in quickly, Steve had no option but to agree to our demands of a trip into town after lunch.
And so off we headed for the delights of the Botanical Gardens for a relaxing afternoon, or so we thought. No sooner had we driven our way through the pedestrian zone in the centre of town and managed to park when Chewy realised that she’d misplaced her bag (complete with wallet and passport). It dawned on us that this was a regular occurrence and that she would be threatened with investigation by the Passport Office and that we really should try and relocate her bag. It was also at this point, that Chewy chose to remind us that she was about to go to Cambodia to ‘look’ after orphans for 2 months – we wish them luck.
Thursday saw the start of racing (heats or race for lanes) and the horror that is the sweat-run for the lightweights. We piled on the layers and ran and ran and ran, eventually making weight just over an hour before our race. Without sufficient time to recover, our race was unsurprisingly not great, but we managed to stay within 2 lengths of the winning Polish crew.
Claire and Chewy were then supposed to race the Lwt double but the prospect of 5 weigh-ins (and hence 5 sweat runs) in 3 days was too much to bear and the decision was made to scratch the doubles entry and focus our efforts on winning the Quads.
The pair of Jenny and Erica raced well, putting up a good fight for second place but were unfortunate to be overtaken coming into the last 500m.
There was no racing scheduled for either of our crews on Friday, so it was all about the pre-lunch nap, the afternoon snooze and the post-paddle kip. Oh and there was a little bit of loitering about coffee-shops playing the ‘pointing’ game. Which actually involves no pointing at all. Don’t ask. I don’t get it either.
The Quad’s Final was on Saturday morning so it was another early start as we set about our last-minute weight loss, which can be summarised as: put on every bit of kit you own, run, strip down and check weight, put horrible, damp, stinky kit back on, run…. repeat as many times as necessary. It is as much fun as it sounds. Steve briefly contemplated documenting the joys of the sweat run then common sense got the better of him and decided that it wasn’t worth risking his life angering the hungry dehydrated skinnies by sticking a camera in their faces. Oh and it would seem that in most other countries, their lightweights actually are light!!
Having learnt from our previous race, the quad got off to a good start and were leading coming into the 500m mark, much to the surprise of Stevie T. However, that wasn’t to last much longer as the neater bladework of the Polish crew took them past and onto a 2 length winning margin over us and the 3rd placed Italian crew a further 2 lengths behind.
It was then time for us to indulge in a much deserved lunch to celebrate the end of a 3 month diet with cake o’clock lasting well into the afternoon, whilst we waited for the Pair’s final. They raced hard all the way and were challenging for the Silver medal at half way but were eventually worn down by a bigger, more experienced crew.
Drinking commenced in earnest after dinner to prepare ourselves for the Euro-pop that we would have to endure at the ‘Athletes’ party’. Having sent our intrepid Captain off in search of some wine, we joined the Glasgow boys for a few games of 21, which resulted in a lot of love being declared for Dr Nigel ‘Killer’ Atkins (former Glasgow now IC coach) and a bit of nakedness.
A bucket of mystery alcohol (with a hint of Lucozade sport) made a surprise appearance with its bearer proudly announcing that he’d ‘pimped out one of the IC girls to a Polish guy for a bottle of cheap red wine’. Said Polish boy turned out to be persistent… far too persistent in claiming his wares. Much to my embarrassment and the amusement of all others present, I turned out to be the object of his affections. Even stern words from Erica (practising her best Terminator look) and Stevie T pretending to be my dad (!?) and slapping him with his gold medal did nothing to dent his determination and I was forced to make an early retreat to bed. Judging from the sore heads and feet the next morning, I gather that a good time was had by all.
It was a highly enjoyable and successful week of racing with IC being the only squad where every member won a medal and the lightweight quad were also the highest placed British crew, winning the only silver medals. Many thanks to Stevie T for not only organising everything, securing substantial sponsorship which allowed us to go on this trip but also for a sterling effort looking after us all and dealing with all the hunger-induced tantrums from the Lwts.