For the W4- the day started with a race against Bristol. Having beaten us in the Championship 8s at BUCs Regatta it looked to be an exciting race seeing how speeds compared having split off into fours for HWR. The race was close all the way to the 750m mark at which point a call to break was made. We made a push and maintained speed until the finish with a lead of 1 1/2 lengths.
The final looked to be a much tougher race facing the Brooke’s Champ 4-, a crew which had previously beaten us at Met. Expecting a hard race, we went hard off the start and Brooke’s, clearly rattled by our fast pace, caught a boat stopping crab in the first 300m. Capitalising on this, we stepped onto a comfortable and powerful rhythm and maintained a lead to win by a comfortable 3 lengths.
The Imperial/Tideway Scullers champ 2- made its debut at Reading Amateur Regatta. There were only two other crews in their event; Brookes lightweight and Brookes openweight (the later had a by through to the final). The Lwt 2- shot out of the blocks in the first race but IC/TSS quickly overtook them and comfortably led them down the course to qualify for the final. The final was more evenly matched, but Brookes took an early lead when a tree steered into the IC/TSS pair. Having stopped and restarted, they caught up quickly, but another minor (major) steering issue left them behind again. IC/TSS started their wind with 500m to go and left nothing in the tank, unfortunately coming up short by half a length. Hopefully HWR will give them a chance to even the score!
Having not had much time together as a crew, Imperial’s 8+ lined up for a tough race against Hampton School's 1st 8+ with a place in the final at stake. For many of the crew, this was their first time in a one-on-one race. Hampton had a slightly stronger start and pulled out a narrow lead. Imperial put in a strong fightback through the middle of the race and crept back a seat or two to prevent Hampton moving away, but couldn’t quite close them down over the 1500m course. Nevertheless, the side-by-side experience will help the crew as they move into their final preparations for Henley Royal Regatta.
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