2005

Rowers reap river rewards

The recent BUSA rowing championship provided the Cardiff University rowing club with levels of success not seen for a number of years.

The senior woman's crew, seeded first in the novice category, reached the semi-finals in both eights and fours, just missing out on a place in the final.

After an intensive training programme, the novice women also entered the eights category. The crew raced in time trials, beating six other boats, but narrowly missed out on a quarter-final place. The quality of rowing was a vast improvement on previous performances, making their coach tearfully pround.

The novice men's crew got through the heats after heavy competition in the time trials. This is the first time in three years that a novice men's crew has got so far.

In the individual event, Doug Court displayed some exceptional sculling, reaching the semi-finals of the championship.

The senior men, returning from an excellent performance in Scotland, were very successful in their championship and junior fours, where both crews reached the semi-finals.

The winning times of the championship events were of international standard, so progressing to the semi-finals in the fours and narrowly missing out in the eights is a highly commendable result and a leap forward for the standard of Cardiff rowing. Competition in such events is always fierce, aganist crews with larger budgets and better facilities.

This weekend was seen as a great success as such positions have not been reached for number of years. Training, post examinations, is now gearing up for Henley, the most famous rowing event in the calender.

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Magnifi-Trent 8s

Cardiff University Rowing Club have secured the university's first BUSA point of the year after two Cardiff crews clalmed gold medals in the Novice category at BUSA Head of the River in Nottingham.

The woman's eight, who have been training day and night since September, battled through the choppy Trent water and strong wind to set a new course record, beating University College, London, by six seconds.

The women's four also took gold by over a minute, with three of its crew having already completed the five-kilometre course in the eight, just minutes before.

The crews included Nikki Earl and Laura Utting who only started rowing eight weeks ago.

Both senior men's crews faced stiff competition from the liked of Exeter, Durham, Leeds and Oxford Brookes, but still ranked within the top 10 in their categories.

The rowing club president Sam Nicholson says it will help boost the university's image: "Our success is important when you think that Cardiff University rowers are the only club to represent Wales at BUSA and other rowing events across the country. By attending more races and showing that Cardiff is a contender, we are building a reputation and the university could be one to beat in a few year."

The BUSA success comes only months after the club's boat 'Charlie Brown' accidentally slid over a weir last October.

Despite this, Cardiff's rowers have worked hard to put the university on the leaderboard with sucess at Bristol and gold at Wycliffe last month.

The club have been raising money for new boats and equipment, with a commendable performance from the novice men who trackled a 10 mile sponsored fun run in skirts and pigtails

Cardiff look set to turn more heads with the arrival of a brand new boat later this month, which is promised to be finished in bright pink.

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Weekend medal haul for Cardiff rowers

Last weekend saw Cardiff rowers clinch medals at Wycliffe head race and the Welsh Indoor Rowing Championships.

Saturday’s Wycliffe event saw Cardiff senior women secure a 1-2 victory in the coxed 4s, gold for the quad and bronze in the novice 4s. This was followed by another day of triumphs at Sunday’s Welsh Indoor National Championships.

Cardiff senior women completed the Wycliffe 2500 m sprint in 10.23 minutes with the other Cardiff team finishing hot on their tails with a time of 10.40.

Pitched against prestigious clubs such as Marlow and City of Oxford the results are testament to the hard work and dedication the club is instilling in order to compete for medals at BUSA in April.

Sunday’s event was a similar success. Cardiff University provided an exceptional turn out to the event, securing three medals – gold, silver and bronze. Gold was awarded to Sally Orr who completed 2000m in 7.22 min, followed by Davina Powell who took silver. The bronze went to Chris Hawkins who finished his ergo in 6.41.

Equally Jon Redman and Andy Delbridge completed personal bests at the event but narrowly missed out on medals.

All in all a very successful weekend for the club, which looks promising for the future months. Will Cardiff beat the National Squad again at Head of the Taff – I’m inclined to say yes!

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2004

Oar-inspiring

The Rowing Club demonstrated its ability at the university of Bristol Head Race last weekend with nine different crews entered for Saturday's racing against strong comptition from other rowing universitys.

The event was also an opportunity for rowers new to the sport to have their taste of competition with the event including specific novice racing categories.

In their first race of the year, the 1^st eight overshadowed much of the competition, beating off teams from Queen's College, Oxford and Southampton, amongst others, over the 3.5 km course.

The 1^st eight finished in second place behind Bristol on their home water, while the 2^nd eight also raced hard, looking strong and composed as they crossed the line, ensuring a fifth placed finish.

Both men's eights raced again later in the day after some crew changes in which Jonny Sykes and Jonathan Redman came inti the "engine room" in the middle of the boat, while Oliver Burdull went in at bow.

The first exploded from the start line and finished faster than in the morning's races, once again dispatching Queen's College and Bournemouth, the race culminating in victory for Bristol A and a rare Mexican stand-off between Cardiff and Southampton - a mere six seconds behind.

Fine performances were also displayed by the woman's squad who finished third and fourth from eight entires in coxed fours, with the A crew just one second off second place.

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