Uni IVs was a knockout competition, with the two boats in each race starting 100 yards apart near Baitsbite Lock and continuing to just before the railway bridge (around 2km).
W1
Uni IVs began as every good day does, with forecasts of heavy rain, grey clouds and horrendous wind speeds. The crew was made aware that this race just shy of 2000m would potentially feel a lot longer. Still, they paced through the warm up, at marshalling enjoyed company from Tim and Ale and got some impressive rates in their practice starts.
The beginning of the race encouraged loose shoulders following many, many taps the crew shot off the start strong and steady. Down first post reach a solid rate was reached and the hips calls levelled up the crews techs. Holding onto Maggie W1 ahead (due to the classic uni IVs displaced start/finish structure) the crew flew into the first corner long and strong. Louis’ coxing pushed them through the corners with impressive lines as they held onto Maggie. As the crew veered around Ditton corner and hit the headwind of the reach, Maggie began to pull away and the crew moved to meet them. Down the reach calls to empty and tiering off pushed the crew further but sadly weren’t quite enough to make up for the lost water on Maggie W1.
The crew finished 4th overall on the day within the women’s first division by a fair margin, showing the determination and battling spirit through wind and rain that any rower would be proud of. A difficult draw to be put against the crew that ended up winning overall but the crew fought hard through the wind and rain to give them strong competition and gained valuable experience along the way.
Big thanks to Ale and Tim for bankpartying and to all the people who subbed into the IV over the last week to ensure we got the practice we needed for the race. Also a big thanks as always to Cam and Joris for coaching.
M1
M1’s race was scrapped with Girton M1 pulling out of the race, putting them straight through to the quarter finals.
This quarter final race was against Jesus M1. Despite an unexpected start, M1 got away quickly, maintaining the gap between Jesus. Approaching the corners, Jesus began to gain on M1 but the crew managed to hold them off until Jesus tried to overtake around grassy corner. As M1 were coming out of the corner, there was a collision between the boats, with both boats halting. The boats pushed off each other, with Jesus M1 pulling ahead. M1 fought back strongly, but despite their best efforts, they could not regain the lead.
Huge thanks to David for coaching and bank partying, and to Ale for organising the crew. It was a great experience for all, especially when the majority of the crew had not been in a 4 before!