Last year, Cambridge University BC dominated the lightweight events at BUCS, claiming victory in every Women’s Lightweight Sweep category up for grabs. With their boat race rivals Oxford not entered into any lightweight sweep events at this year’s Regatta, it will be yet another opportunity for Cambridge to see how this year’s lightweight contingent match up against some of the other top lightweight programmes in the country, and whether they can defend their titles in both the Coxless Four and Intermediate Pair.
Championship Lightweight Coxless Four
The Cambridge Lightweight Blue Boat are all racing in sweep events at BUCS, including four of them in this Coxless Four. Although a completely different line up to last year’s lightweights – who took gold in this event – I nonetheless still expect them to feature on the podium this time around. University of Surrey BC took the silver medal last year, and have entered two crews this year, a great sign of the ongoing strength of Surrey’s lightweight programme. They’ll take heart from that strong performance last year and a strong showing at BUCS Head, where their two lightweight crews took second and fourth place respectively. The winning combination from BUCS Head came from Durham University BC, with University of Nottingham BC rounding out the podium in third. Durham’s win at BUCS Head suggests that coming out of the head season they were best positioned to challenge Cambridge’s dominance of lightweight events in recent years. That said, having been so close to glory last year, Surrey will also believe they can take the win in this event this time around.
Intermediate Lightweight Pair
There is set to be an encouraging number of entries to the Lightweight Intermediate Pair this year, with three entries from the Cambridge lightweight blue boat and two entries from Durham. Durham took second place last year in this event, sandwiched between two Cambridge crews, but will undoubtedly aim to go one better this year. Surrey will also aspire to make the podium, with De Montfort returning following their A Final result last year. Exeter and Nottingham have also entered and will be hoping to get into the top six. It’s going to be a fight to the bitter end and I can’t wait to see who comes out on top.
Prediction
With lots of overlap in the lineup, I would expect that the results from the Coxless Four on the Sunday will serve as a good indication going into the Pair on the Monday. Although Cambridge were dominant last year, this year’s lightweights saw a lot of new talent coming through, and rival universities will certainly be keen to see Cambridge topple from the top. While I would expect Cambridge to still do well, it would be surprising to see such a monopoly over the top spots again, but it could happen. Durham and Surrey’s lightweight programmes have been on the up in recent years and, following some solid head season results, I would expect them to be Cambridge’s biggest challengers for medals in both categories at the weekend.
BUCS Image Credit: Drew Smith
Drew Smith Photography
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