This weekend sees crews lining up on the famous Henley racecourse, ready to compete over 1500m in what constitutes a good practice run ahead of Henley Royal Regatta. The Colgan Foundation Cup for Aspirational Academic Eights gives university crews a good opportunity to test their speed against one another, although at a relatively shorter distance than the 2km races that usually dominate regatta season.
Newcastle University BC
Newcastle have entered two crews into the Colgan Foundation Cup this year. Although crew lists can change before the event starts, their ‘A’ boat looks very similar to their Women’s Intermediate Eight that took bronze in the A-final at BUCS Regatta, as well as the crew that came third in the C-final of the Women’s Championship Eights on Saturday of the Met Regatta, and fifth in the B-final on Sunday.
Having made it to the semi-final of this event at HWR last year, where they narrowly lost out to Durham University by just over a second, they will be coming into this weekend with a vengeance.
Oxford Brookes University BC
Boasting one of the most successful university rowing programmes in Europe, the top few crews from Brookes usually live up to this reputation. This proved true at BUCS Regatta, where they came first in the Women’s Championship Eights A-final, alongside taking first and second in the Women’s Intermediate Eights A-final. They carried this over to Saturday of the Met Regatta, where they took first, third, and fourth in the A-final of the Women’s Championship Eights event. Despite the fact that Brookes have two crews entered into the Ron Needs Cup, the impressive performances of their top three crews at recent events demonstrate the depth of their squad, and as such their entry into the Colgan Foundation Cup has a high chance of retaining the trophy from last year.
University of London BC
UL has seen lots of success in the last few months. At BUCS Regatta, they took home a number of medals, including silver in the Women’s Championship Eights event and bronze in the Intermediate Coxed Fours. More recently, they won gold and silver in the Women’s Coxless Four, as well as silver in the Women’s Eights event at Poplar Regatta. The club opted to go on training camp instead of racing at Met Regatta, but having continuously proven their capabilities against other academic crews, the entry from UL looks to be one of the favourites going into the competition.
Imperial College BC
Recently, Imperial has had some standout performances in smaller sweep boats, taking bronze in the Women’s Coxless Fours at BUCS Regatta, and gold in the Women’s Championship Pair. Faced with more competition from clubs, they achieved a bronze medal in the B-final of the Women’s Championship Coxless Fours on Saturday of the Met Regatta. In light of this, it will be interesting to see how they perform in the eight against other university crews.
Radcliffe Crew
Making the journey across the pond, crews from the USA are usually expected to perform. Radcliffe Crew, the women’s rowing team from Harvard, will be hoping to do just that this weekend after their recent Ivy League Championships performance, where they took fifth place in the Varsity Eight Final 1. While it is hard to predict how they will compare to UK crews, they are undoubtedly one to look out for.
Prediction
Given their history, I would not be surprised to see Brookes winning this event for the second year in a row. However, the entries from UL, Newcastle, and potentially Radcliffe Crew will certainly give them a run for their money, maybe edging them out of that top spot.
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