As clubs from universities up and down the UK head home this evening, we reflect on another years at BUCS Head.
There was a strong showing in many of the women’s events, and it’s no surprise that when lacking the likes of Brookes, UL, and Oxbridge, many championship categories were dominated by the triad of Northern powerhouses: Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Durham. However, it was Surrey University who took home the most gold medals from women’s events this year (beginner coxed four, championship lightweight coxless four, and intermediate coxed four); I’m sure they’ll be delighted with this strong start to their 2024 BUCS campaign.
The women’s squads from Edinburgh and Durham each took home two gold medals, as well as a haul of bronzes and silvers to add to their BUCS titles. There may be a tinge of disappointment at the Newcastle University boathouse tonight compared with previous years as they leave the Tyne without a single gold. Still, two silver and two bronze medals – plus often multiple crews inside the top ten – should leave them feeling optimistic about their 2024 prospects.
Looking at Sunday’s racing in the beginner categories, the mentions must go to the women’s beginner eights crews from Edinburgh University and Queen’s University Belfast: with less than three seconds between the two, taking gold and silver, they also posted the fastest two times of the day to beat a whole host of men’s eights, quads, and coxed fours as well as the rest of the women’s beginner field. I’m really excited to now see how some of these crews can develop looking towards regatta season given this strong start. It was good to see a shakeup in the women’s beginner quads and coxed fours too, with Leeds University and Surrey University taking the wins respectively, also marking the first BUCS gold for Leeds in several years.
Saturday’s intermediate quads saw a commanding win from the University of Bath with a crew that included three of Dan Harris’ GB Start athletes, followed by Queen’s and Birmingham in silver and bronze. Similarly in the lightweight quads, a win by more than 30 seconds for Birmingham again pushed Queen’s into silver.
Looking back to Saturday’s division one, intermediate eights saw the aforementioned Northern powerhouses make up six of the top eight crews, but it was encouraging to see Glasgow and Exeter make a challenge for the top spots – coming fourth and fifth respectively – while Queen’s, St Andrews, and York equally performed well in the ranks.
Finally, the championship quads, fours, and eights were generally a showdown between crews from Imperial, Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Durham, but unsurprisingly it was Reading University that took the victory by a considerable margin in the champ quads, a testament to the standard of sculling within their squad.
180 women’s crews from up and down the country raced over the weekend, and with the conclusion of some great racing and uncharacteristically calm conditions on the Tyne, I look forward to seeing many of these athletes head down to the Tideway for WeHORR in two weeks, before the squads set their sights on BUCS Regatta.
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