Newcastle triumphant at 2016 BUCS regatta

The Newcastle team was able to repeat their 2015 points victory on the men’s side, while the University of London took the lead spot on the women’s side. The overall points were enough to allow Newcastle to claim the overall Victor Ludorum trophy from rival and multi-year defending champions Durham University.

These are historical results for the Newcastle team explains Head Coach Angelo Savarino, who credits “solid performances across the board, with almost the entirety of the club, about 45 men and 40 women,  racing in the finals against tough opposition and the vast majority winning at least one medal each.”

Several key wins helped to ensure Newcastle’s success. The team’s podium finishes included seven gold medals, four silver and ten bronze. Golds came in the following events: men’s championship quadruple sculls, men’s lightweight quad, men’s lightweight eight, men’s lightweight four, men’s lightweight intermediate single, women’s intermediate eight and women’s intermediate pair.

The BUCS Regatta is the major fixture of the university racing schedule in Great Britain with roughly 3000 participants from universities and colleges. Events in beginner, intermediate and championship categories ensure that competition is at the right level and is fun and fierce for everyone from novices to budding international level talent.

“The regatta over the years has been increasing its standard massively,” Savarino says. “There were World Rowing Under23 Championship (level) athletes in the vast majority of finals in championship events.”

The championship races are the most prestigious events. This year Oxford Brookes University showed the quality of both their men’s and women’s programmes in these races. Oxford Brookes mounted the podium in six of the eight championship sweep boat classes.

Selected championship boat class results:

Championship eight

While the men’s race was initially viewed as a fait accompli for the defending Oxford Brookes crew of Matthew Aldrige, Morgan Bolding, Michael Glover, Richard Hawkins, Rory Gibbs, Ben Reeves, Jamie Copus, Ask Tjom and coxswain Harry Brightmore, Imperial College proved to be strong opponents in early rounds. In the final, however, Imperial’s Chris Au, Tim Richards, Tristan Vouiloz, Andrew Halls, James Readhead, Ben Thomas, Ollie Hines, Toby Heaton and coxswain Pail Jones were simply not strong enough and Oxford Brookes led the entire race. Newcastle rounded out the top three.

The Oxford Brookes women’s crew of Annie Withers, Dannielle Shrosbree, Grace Macdonald, Mirella Mcgee, Jessica Brown, Emily Heridge, Christie Duff, Imogen Mackie and coxswain Alice McWilliam proved equally, if not more determined to win their event, defeating Cambridge University that boasted members from their 2016 Boat Race line up. Myriam Goudet, Hanna, Robert, Zara Goozee, Daphne Martschenko, Thea Zabell, Ashton Brown and Fiona Macklin were joined by Alexandra Wood and coxswain Nicole Abernethy, both of whom raced in the Cambridge women’s reserve boat at the 2016 Boat Race. The bronze medal went to the University of London.

Championship pair

The women’s pair went to Maddy Badcott and Lauren Kedar of Oxford University, who repeated their Boat Race win on a smaller scale against Cambridge’s Goudet and Roberts. Hanna Inntjore and Rebekka Hodson of Durham University finished third.

Men: Ben Thomas and Ollie Hines of Imperial College took gold.  University of Edinburgh’s Calum Irvine and Rufus Scholefield finished with silver ahead of bronze medallist Patrick Boomer and Charles Middleton of the University of London.

Championship quadruple sculls

Mairi Buchan, Maddie Arlett, Robyn Hart Winks and Emily Bowie of Edinburgh University won the women’s quad and the silver went to the University of London’s Hodgkins-Byrne, French, Emma Reiser and Lottie Bruce, while Newcastle’s Emily Ford, Metilda Martin, Helen O-Riordan and Georgia Mulraine took bronze.

Newcastle’s Oli Knight, Alex Haynes, Baranby Stoud-Turp and James Rudkin easily won the men’s race leaving Durham University’s James Vogel, Alex Fisher, Hugo Coussens and Ben Weston in a fight for silver with Max Hearnden, Alex Walkins, Josh Tolley and Alexander Evangelidis of Loughborough University, who had to settle for bronze after an unsuccessful final charge.

Championship single sculls

Georgia Fancis of St. Mary’s University claimed victory in the women’s race even though Oxford University’s Ruth Siddorn had an explosive first 500m. Siddorn couldn’t maintain that pace and Francis cruised by just after half way pushing Siddorn into silver place. Caitlin Boyland of Loughborough University finished in third.

In the men’s single, Sam Twine of the University of Reading led from beginning to end and took gold ahead of Philip Doyle of Queen’s University Belfast. Robert Gordon University’s Lewic McCue took bronze.

Full results available here  http://regatta.rowtime.co.uk/