BUCS review for the 2021-2022 Season
Reading University Boat Club
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Reading University Boat Club -
With the end of BUCS Regatta, the BUCS season has officially concluded for RUBC. After a hard eight months of training, the club has yielded great results from BUCS Head and the regatta.
BUCS Head
Back in February, our athletes travelled all the way up to Newcastle to send some speed down the Tyne after a hard winter of training. The club managed to get some fantastic results, winning both Championship and Intermediate Men’s Quads in the first division. The Champ Quad had a great victory by a slim margin of 1 second over Durham, with our Intermediate ‘A’ boat dominating the field, 7 seconds ahead of the next crew to claim another gold medal. Our Lightweight Women’s Quad also achieved a fantastic Gold in their category in the same division keeping the continued success of lightweights at our club going. Our Men’s Intermediate ‘B’ boat also medalled in the Intermediate Quad’s category, achieving bronze amongst some tough competition. Our Men’s ‘C’ boat also placed 11th, beating many universities’ first boats in the process. To have the men’s squad get two medals in the same category was a great achievement and was a demonstration of its depth and racing ability.
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Our Women’s Quads came up against some tough competition, but still put in some good performances over both divisions. The Championship quad placed 4th in a very competitive field with two crew members having raced the previous division, with the Intermediate ‘A’ and ‘B’ boats placing 10th and 13th respectively after battling it out with some top tier sculling with other universities. Following the women’s results, the entire club managed to gather enough points to place 5th in the overall Victor Ludorum, a great result considering the club only entered sculling events.
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Our Novice squad also had their debut on the Sunday, with 2 men’s and a women’s quad racing on the shortened yet choppy Novice course. Our Women’s Quad placed 7th and our Men’s Quad 6th and 9th respectively. The conditions on the second day were very challenging for a debut race, and the Novices got some great experience racing at national level against some of the countries top beginner programmes.
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BUCS Regatta
After a couple more months of training, including a home-based training camp, the club geared itself up for a three-day stint at Nottingham for BUCS regatta. RUBC entered 25 crews into the regatta in nearly every sculling event on offer. Over the course of the three days, the club won 7 silver medals and 2 bronze amongst some fantastic racing.
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On Monday, our senior men were out in small boats, with five singles covering the Championship and Intermediate singles for both lightweight and open weight. Our novice men were also entered into beginner quads. Our women were competing in the flagship quad event, with our A and C boats entered into Women’s Intermediate Quads, as well as entering into the Championship Lightweight doubles. Our ‘B’ boat unfortunately did not race due to medical reasons. We also entered a beginner women’s single. The women’s quads produced some great racing, with our Inter ‘A’ boat claiming silver and handily dispatching Newcastle after a close tussle in their semi-final, a great result to kickstart the regatta. Our ‘C’ quad got stuck right into the racing and placed 21st overall after coming 3rd in their D final. Our Champ lightweight double of Lara and Lauren had a tough field to compete against, most notably coming up against Olympian Imogen Grant for the first time of many throughout the regatta. Despite remaining within a length for the first 750m, the double placed 2nd to take silver, a great result in a tough championship event. Our Beginner Women’s single Poppy had never raced in a 1x before, so to turn up and race the full course was immensely brave and to beat some other universities was a great achievement for her and gave her some great experience. The Men’s singles yielded some great results; Al and Jack raced in their respective Champ and Inter lightweight singles and placed 6th and 5th in their A finals, producing some great racing along the way. Josh was our Champ open weight entry and produced a great performance to place 4th in the A final, just a couple of seconds off Bronze. Jacob was our Inter entry and placed 15th overall in a huge field of scullers. A notable mention to our masters student Ed, who battled chronic fatigue all year just to be able to race at BUCS in the Inter singles. Ed placed 6th in his time trial, a great achievement for someone who thought they would never row again and who manages a condition understood by few alongside his studies and training. The Novice men also threw everything at their regatta campaign, ultimately winning their B final by a second to place 7th overall in a great display of guts and determination.
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Day 2 brought about more medals and more spectacular racing. This time our Women’s squad took to the small boats, with three entries into the Inter singles, two into the Champ lightweight singles, and one into the Inter lightweight singles. Our Men’s squad entered 5 doubles; one into Champ, three into Inter and one into Champ Lightweight. Our lightweight double, comprised of our two lightweight singles the day before, gave a good crack against some top-class opposition, placing 2nd in their repechage to eventually place 5th overall in their A final. Our Champ open weight of double comprising half of our 1st quad placed 2nd for Louis and Olly to claim silver and add to RUBC’s growing medal tally. In the Intermediate category, our ‘A’ boat comprised of Josh and Sol, had a great race for the medals, edging 2nd by just over a second to Edinburgh to take home another silver for RUBC. Our Inter ‘B’ boat comprised of Tom and Jonjo had a great regatta considering a noble last-minute substitution from Jonjo, going on to place 2nd in their B final and therefore 8th overall in yet another tight race, losing out to Strathclyde by a second. Our Inter ‘C’ boat comprising Sam and Cam gave a good effort to place 5th and therefore 17th overall in another stacked field. Our lightweight women were out in force again on the Sunday, with Alex placing 4th in the A final of her Inter lightweight single and Lauren claiming a great bronze in her Champ lightweight A final, fending off a Cambridge sculler by a matter of seconds in a very competitive field of scullers. Finn spearheaded the Inter singles entry, winning her semi-final in style to go on and place 5th in her A final, with Leah placing 3rd and therefore 15th overall in a category with yet another massive entry.
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The last day produced some of the closest racing yet, with many athletes running on fumes from 2 previous days of racing, the margins became closer and the racing more intense. It was our Women’s turn to double up and take on the 2x categories. Lara and Lauren took on the Championship open weight doubles despite being lightweight and another four doubles were entered into the Inter category. Our men’s squad were entered into four quads, one into Champ, and three into inter. Our Champ women’s double capped off a great regatta and an outstanding race to place 3rd and take home a bronze medal, 2 seconds off gold and 1 off of bronze in a great battle for the podium. Our Inter ‘A’ double comprising Leah and Finn also had a great race in their A final, one-upping their semi-final placing to take home yet another fantastic silver for the club 1 second ahead of Edinburgh. The other Inter doubles also performed well, with our ‘B’ boat Flora and Alex comfortably winning their B final, our ‘C’ boat of Abby and Anna placing 2nd in their D final and our ‘D’ boat of Rosie and Zara winning their E final. Our Novice girls also entered into beginner’s 2x, putting in a great effort to place 3rd in their C final. The final day was the men’s flagship event, with quads entered into two categories to add to the RUBC tally. Our Champ quad had a great race, harrying a very competitive Queen’s Belfast boat the entire 2k to place 2nd in a dramatic race end, resulting in Durham crabbing on the line and losing out on the medals to Edinburgh. Our Inter ‘A’ boat similarly got involved in some very tight racing, winning their semi-final by 1 foot to go and place 2nd to claim another brilliant silver in another tight race where 3 seconds separated the entire field at the 1k mark. Our ‘C’ boat gave a good account of themselves to place 6th in their B final and therefore 12th overall in another hotly contested event. The Inter ‘C’ boat placed 5th in their E final to place 29th overall, a good effort considering some last-minute substitutions.
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The club placed 6th in both the Men’s and Women’s Victor Ludorum and 7th overall, a good achievement for a relatively small university club entering only sculling events. The regatta was a great experience for all and saw some exciting racing which provided a great experience for the years to come and an apt send for those in their last year.
Total BUCS medal tally for the year:
-3 gold
-7 silver
-3 bronze