After a long hiatus from regatta racing, both the senior and novice squads were excited to get stuck back in at this year’s delayed BUCS Regatta from the 24th to 26th June 2021. The regatta allows the club to compete with universities across the country, and this year in particular offered a great introduction to racing for the novice squads. Due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, there were two novice categories this year: beginner 1, for those with one year of rowing experience, and beginner 2, for those with up to two years of rowing experience. The regatta saw ICBC come home with eight medalling crews in total (see bottom of page for full list of results).
The first day of racing saw the senior squads racing primarily in small boats. The championship men’s pair and three intermediate men’s pairs made a good start to the day, with the championship pair and one intermediate pair progressing into the A finals. This set them up well for the afternoon’s finals, with a silver medal for Casper Woods and David Simmonds in the championship pairs and a further silver medal for George Shaw and Thomas Smith in the intermediate pairs in a nail-biting finish that saw less than a second between the three medalling crews. The remaining intermediate pairs finished a good 7th and 19th.
Daniel Kirwan put in a super showing in beginner 1 singles, progressing well throughout the day to finish in a fantastic 4th, while the intermediate quad finished a strong 5th.
The senior women’s squad boated a championship coulees four and an intermediate double. The four raced excellently among tough competition, winning their repechage to progress to the A final where they finished in 4th place. The women’s intermediate double put in some good racing in a novel combination to finish 9th overall.
The second day of racing saw the men’s squad jump into the eights with the women’s squad racing in pairs. The women put in some fantastic racing to match the previous day’s medal performances by the men, finishing with a silver medal in championship pairs for Helen Kirkpatrick and Lizzie Witt and a silver medal in intermediate pairs for Daisy Bethell and Gled Musollari, with the other intermediate pairs finishing 10th and 20th overall.
The men’s eights faced plenty of tough competition which made for competitive racing. The first eight finished 5th overall in championship eights, with the second and third eights finishing 11th and 19th in intermediate eights respectively.
The Friday of racing also saw the majority of the beginner crews take to the water for the first time of the regatta. The beginner two coxed four came home with a fantastic gold medal while the beginner one coxed four took home bronze in their category with another four finishing in 5th place, really showing their strength among other novice squads around the country. The beginner one women also had a great start to their racing careers at ICBC, finishing a super 8th place overall in a close finish with a Manchester crew.
The final day of racing was an opportunity for our beginner crews to shine as they moved into the eights. The beginner one and two categories were combined for the side by side racing, which saw our beginner one crew top other clubs’ beginner two eights with both our novice boats making the A final. The beginner two eight led the final from start to finish, taking home the gold medal, while ICBC were the only beginner one crew to make the A final, taking home the gold medal in their category.
The senior men’s squad put in some strong performances in the fours, with the championship coxless four finishing a super 4th in what ended up being a seven crew final. The championship coxed four faced tough competition to finish a strong 6th place, while the intermediate fours finished a fantastic 4th, 23rd and 24th.
The women were the final event of the day in the championship eights. After a good row in the time trial, they ran into a couple of swans, but still finished a strong 6th place. Overall, the squad really enjoyed the chance to be back racing after a disruptive 18 months, and many are hungry to come back stronger for BUCS Regatta 2022.
Head Coach, Peter Hardcastle, said:
"It was fantastic to see all the students competing in the sport we all love following this season of limited training.
All the students had a great regatta and enjoyed racing in the tail wind posting some fast times. It was rewarding that Imperial medalled in each category (Beginner, Intermediate and Championship) across both female and male squads. Imperial has crews racing at Henley Women’s Regatta which is the week after BUCS Regatta and then Henley Royal Regatta too."
Full results:
Gold - Men’s Beginner 1 Eight
Gold - Men’s Beginner 2 Eight
Gold - Men’s Beginner 2 Coxed Four
Silver - Women’s Championship Pair
Silver - Women’s Intermediate Pair (A)
Silver - Men’s Championship Pair
Silver - Men’s Intermediate Pair
Bronze - Men’s Beginner 1 Coxed Four (A)
4th - Men’s Championship Four (7 lane final)
4th - Women’s Championship Four
4th - Men’s Beginner Single
4th - Men’s Intermediate Coxed Four (A)
5th - Men’s Championship Eight (2xBrookes, Newcastle, UL, Imperial, Cambridge, Edinburgh)
5th - Men’s Intermediate Quad
5th - Men’s Beginner 1 Coxed Four (B)
6th - Women’s Championship Eight
6th - Men’s Championship Coxed Four
8th - Women’s Beginner 1 Eight
7th - Men’s Intermediate Pair
9th - Women’s Intermediate Double
10th - Women’s Intermediate Pair (B)
11th - Men’s Intermediate Eight (A)
19th - Men’s Intermediate Eight (B)
19th - Men’s Intermediate Pair
20th - Women’s Intermediate Pair (C)
23rd - Men’s Intermediate Coxed Four (C)
24th - Men’s Intermediate Coxed Four (B)
Many thanks to sponsors AllMarkOne for the images.
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