As February progresses we ready ourselves for the great migration of students to the North East. A weekend of blood, sweat and carb loading awaits and that’s just the night out in the toon. As for the rowing, four crews will contest the five kilometre course in this event. Durham, racing on home water, will face stiff competition from Nottingham as well as two crews from Surrey.
University of Surrey BC
Surrey head north as defending champions in this event and they have even brought a second crew for good measure. As last season progressed they left BUCS Regatta with a silver medal only losing out to a well drilled Cambridge crew and ten seconds ahead of fourth place Durham.
It’s brilliant to see universities such as Surrey continuing to build and develop a lightweight squad despite the lack of support from the International Olympic Committee around the future of lightweights at the very top of the sport. Lightweights play a crucial role in university rowing ensuring the sport remains open to all.
Politics partly to one side, Sam Tuck’s women will be going up against his palatinate alma mater in what should be a cracking contest on the Tyne.
Durham University BC
Speaking of palatinate, Durham have been flourishing under the stewardship of Rob Dauncey and Will Fletcher. As previously mentioned, Durham were bettered by Surrey at BUCS Regatta, but did have some success in the smaller boats picking up minor medals in the lightweight pair and double.
More recently, Durham’s lightweight scullers have recently put together some cracking results at trials. Izzy Sellers and Caroline Rijkse placed first and sixth in the U23 Lwt single and Sellers was even the third fastest open-weight U23.
University of Nottingham BC
Nottingham are also under new leadership. Club stalwart John McKirdy has been succeeded by Notts graduate Ade Roberts who has recently spent a large chunk of time in the GB system, most recently as the lead coach for the GB junior team before working in school with children at risk of exclusion.
As for the rowers, Nottingham’s lightweight quad was some distance off the mark at BUCS Head last year and then did not make the A final later at BUCS Regatta. However, worth noting of the wider squad, the club is making a consistent step up into the vast majority of championship events at this year’s event on the Tyne. With the outstanding sporting pedigree that Nottingham have across the wider BUCS programme, it is high time that the boat club started to ruffle the feathers of the championship mainstays.
Prediction
My predictions… Durham, Surrey A, Nottingham then Surrey ‘B’.
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