For the second time in three years, UBBC hosted the regional competition for the BUCS University Indoor Rowing Series, welcoming other university boat clubs to race over 2000m for seniors and 1000m for novices.
Bristol’s medal haul for the day began in the very first race, with Emilia Crocker taking the bronze for the open women’s contest, with Bristol taking half of the top 10 positions in the field. Despite feeling she had more potential, Emilia put in exceptional effort and the women’s squad came away with a solid day of racing under their belts.
“I went into the 2k knowing what I could achieve and hoping everything would go to plan. It was as tough mentally as it was physically, and unfortunately, I just slipped off my target pace and did not quite reflect my best performance. Regardless, I still managed to pull a relatively fast time of 7:22:6, and it was of course a satisfying finish to end with the bronze medal. Whilst a bittersweet experience, a lot was learnt and I have been left with a renewed determination for my next 2k.” Emilia Crocker, Bronze Medallist, BUCS Open-weight Championship Women.
The heavy men were next to race and produced a stack of impressive results with a number of personal bests from the squad. At the front of the field, John Davies, Robert Davies and Arun Jackson locked out the podium, taking gold, silver and bronze respectively, with Xaver Eisl and fresher Tom Smith hot on their heels.
Next to race were the lightweights and more medals were to come Bristol’s way. Hollie Saunders added a bronze in the lightweight women’s category the medal tally, followed by Arthur Smith taking the gold for the lightweight men after charging down eventual bronze medallist Alex Morrison.
Not even a week after selection, the novice women were next to race in their first competition for UBBC, in a tight field of over 30 competitors. However, that didn’t stop the success, as Molly Mees produced an impressive score to take the silver medal, making it 8 medals in total for Bristol.
“I had a great time at BUCS indoors on Sunday racing for the girl’s novice squad. We all started with the beginners 1k which was a brilliant opportunity to smash our erg scores from trials- which everyone definitely did! This was followed by a 4x500m relay which was a lot of fun both to race in and to watch! It was lovely to meet the rest of the club and all the seniors were very supportive of us newbies. Having thought the erg was pure evil for years I can’t believe that I am saying this, but I really enjoyed the whole event and can’t wait for the rest of the year!” Molly Mees, Bronze medallist, BUCS Beginner Women
The novice men were next to race in an even larger and even tighter pack, with the top finisher being Harrison Crisp who came home in 5thposition in a field of more than 50.
Last, but by no means least, were the novice relay races, taking place over 2000m in teams of 4. The fastest men’s team missed out on a medal by only a few seconds, however the fastest women’s team finished in the top 3, taking a clear bronze medal 10 seconds ahead of the next fastest team.
As a whole, the club produced a strong start to the racing season. The whole day ran smoothly with huge thanks to Simran, our events officer, who organised and ran the whole event! Our attention now turns to UBBC Head, hoping we can match or better our medal haul.
