BUCS Regatta marks the start of the Regatta racing season for NTUBC, 38 members split into 19 crews were entered to race across the 3-day event and it was set to be a bank holiday weekend packed full of excitement. 

 

The undoubted highlight of the first day came thanks to Matt Haywood in Men's Intermediate 1x who showed his strength throughout the day, firstly by placing fastest in his time trial. His domination didn’t stop there as he then went on to win his A/B semi and maintained this momentum to take a comfortable two lengths win in the A Final. Congratulations to Matt for bringing home a Gold Medal! Other notable highlights came from our Women’s Intermediate 4x that finished a fantastic 7th in a pack of 31 in their Time Trial and despite narrowly missing out into making the A Final finished 3rd in the B Final in a closely contested race all the way to the line. Finally, our Men’s Beginner 4+ who showed how far they have come by making it into a C Final and a gutsy row placed them 4th.

 

Sunday saw 4 crews racing across Women’s Beginner 4x, Women’s Intermediate 1x and Men’s Beginner 8+. The day ended with more members of our women’s squad in the spotlight with Emma Wrigley in the Women’s Intermediate 1x who finished 12th in her time trial and after holding her own in a classy field in the A/B semi she showed her real strength in the B Final finishing 4th.  The Women’s Beginner 4x had a noticeable performance in their Time Trial where they were less than 3 seconds off a place in the A/B semis which meant they were set for a C Final for which they finished a respectable 6th.  Finally, the Men’s Beginner 8+ who pulled out all the stops in the F final to finish 3rd in a close race between the top 3 crews all the way to the finish.

 

The final day of the event ended with a bang with the undoubted highlight coming from the Intermediate Men’s 2- consisting of future NTUBC President Ed Stracey and the people's champion Yiana Shakespeare in his last BUCS regatta for NTUBC. They started their BUCS campaign by finishing a fast 3rd in their Time Trial and taking the same result in their A/B semis setting them up for an A Final. The A Final was a race worth waiting for, with 500m to go our crew was level with 4 others in an intense battle for 3rd place. A strong sprint saw them push through to 4th. Two more noteworthy performances came again from the men’s squad. Our Championship lightweight 2-finished 12th out of 20 competitors in the Time Trials qualifying them for the A/B semis where they finished 5th. Finally, the Intermediate Men’s 4x that finished 4th in the C Final and less than 2 seconds off 3rd.

 

It is without saying that all NTUBC crews gave it their all and represented the club and University to an impeccable standard, although I am unable to write about every crew's performance I have no doubt everyone will come back hungry for more next year.

 

More photos can be found on our Flickr! https://flic.kr/s/aHskYRKEKs