Just because these competitors are university-level rowers does not mean at all that the quality of sculling is not excellent. If one were to have a look at some of the names on the entry list without knowing it was BUCS, one might think it was part of a lineup racing at an international World Cup – this is the standard we are dealing with.
One of the unique elements of this category compared to previous years is that some of the entrants can be broken up in terms of their relationship with the Olympics, as you shall see now:
The first entry we have is Matt Brigham, the Kingslayer himself. We need not dwell on that well-covered topic for for the time being, instead we shall just reflect on Matt’s relationship with the Olympics as someone who has beaten the reigning Olympic champion in the single scull. He is no stranger to this event either, picking up the silver medal in 2019.
The next noteworthy entrant is Oxford Brookes’ Jamie Copus, someone who missed out on qualification for the Olympics this year yet still chose to continue his season at Brookes at various regattas since, with the hopes of being a key element of their secret elaborate Henley campaign. I would be surprised if even Jamie could tell you how many BUCS regatta medals he has; he is definitely the most experienced athlete in the field.
Now onto a soon-to-be Olympian, Cambridge’s former men’s President Dara Alizadeh, who will compete in the single sculls in Tokyo at the end of July representing the Bahamas. BUCS regatta is not exactly what you would call an Olympic warm-up event, but I imagine he will be building his confidence off the back of a win in the single at Met Regatta with a gold here too. If Dara is to challenge the likes of the international circuit’s scullers, first he must prove he can dominate the UK field in as many events as possible.
As I said, there is such a strong caliber of entries in this field, but I imagine the rest of the field will be playing catchup with the three athletes mentioned above. The ‘best of the rest’ is most likely to be a matchup between Durham’s Dan Middleton and Brookes’ Quentin Antognelli.
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