CCBC - News - Marlow Regatta 2002

Marlow Regatta

22nd June 2002

As preparation for Henley Royal Regatta, the men's 1st IV travelled to the 6 lane Dorney Lake to compete in Marlow's "international" Regatta. There they competed in the new S2 4+ category against many of the crews who they would face in qualifying for the Britannia Challenge Cup.

The crew arrived a day early with coach Gerald Blake to sample the lake, as it was the first time they would have competed in a multi-lane event. They weren't disappointed as Dorney Lake (owned by Eton College) is an amazing site, even though it is still 500m short of it's final 2km length. After a productive training session the crew returned to Farnham for the night (via a few "shortcuts") for a restful nights sleep.

Returning in the morning everyone was ready for a good days racing. There were 20 crews in the event, so to start there were 4 heats each with 5 crews. First and second place from each went though directly to the semi-finals, whilst third, fourth and fifth would face the lottery of a repechage. After a few technical problems (Sam's seat wouldn't move), they arrived in lane 2 with seconds to spare. However, all the stress of rushing to the start was soon relieved when in the first few strokes Collingwood had a length on RMA Sandhurst in lane 1. A comfortable lead in the race was soon established over all the crews, with Collingwood comfortably winning the heat, giving them direct entry into the semi-final (5 hours later!). After a lazy lunch watching some other racing, the crew returned to the water with confidence. In the semi-final they were lined up against the DUBC Freshmen 1st IV, a repeat of the Sunday senior 1 final at Durham Regatta. Possibly this contributed to a below average performance by the Collingwood crew, but they did enough by finishing third to qualify for the final. The line-up for the final included some quality crews including Warwick and Loughbourgh Universities. Collingwood took lane 1, for what they knew would be by far their toughest race yet. After a solid first 500m CCBC were up with the leaders as they had planned, but the quality of Warwick, Loughbourgh and Henley RC shone though as they formed a leading group in the second 500m. Collingwood held a solid 4th, which they took to the finish line, pushing the freshmen into 5th by 1/3 length.

Everyone was delighted with the performance, and returned home thinking of a weeks training in Henley before the qualifiers.

Rob Wilson

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