The Head season is finally over, and regatta season has commenced. With sunny days and warm weather greeting us, it seems that the streak of endlessly cancelled events has come to a close. With the first multi-lane regatta being BUCS, it also marks the epitome of the year for many UK university boat clubs. The first BUCS since the official end of Olympic lightweight rowing, it will be interesting to see if that has had any effects on the wider rowing community. Often the people’s favourite lightweight event to watch at the Olympics, we turn to the open lightweight coxless four to see how the crews stack up.
Imperial College London
Imperial have had a truly successful season so far. While their 23rd, 47th and 79th places at the Head of the River Race are good markers of their strength, their win in the lightweight championship coxless four at BUCS Head makes them the crew to watch. With some extra practice over the fixture season, they will be coming in with plenty side-by-side race experience. After their camp in Spain, we look forward to seeing if their training there has paid off and they have what it takes to win this event.
Oxford University
With two crews entered, Oxford have a mix of their squad members from this year’s Boat Race campaign as well as new athletes in their development programme. The mix of experience and skill will make them hard to place, but there’s no doubt that their training at Wallingford and Tideway experience will help them finish strong position. With Harry Brightmore in the Dark Blue coaching set-up, there’s plenty of BUCS-winning experience to guide them to gold.
Nottingham University
The crew with the home water advantage, Nottingham have good history in the lightweight events at BUCS. Their stand-out performance this season came at BUCS Head, where they took the silver medal in the lightweight coxless four. With an almost 24 second gap to make up to the front-runners though, only time will tell whether their training has paid off.
Queen’s University Belfast
Another university with two crews entered, Queen’s are in the mix. At BUCS Head, they took the bronze medal in the lightweight coxless four, only 4.3 seconds behind Nottingham. With such a small gap to the home crew, that margin is absolutely recoverable. Another boat club that opted to train in Spain over the Easter period, to complement a couple of extra head races in Belfast, their hard work will be on display this weekend as they look to take on Nottingham and push into the medal positions.
University of Surrey
The final crew entered, Surrey placed a respectable fifth at BUCS Head, 28 seconds behind the Queen’s ‘A’ crew, but 18 seconds ahead of Queen’s ‘B’ crew. With ground to make up, they will have a tough race ahead of them but the aim will be to break onto the podium.
Prediction
Oxford are throwing the predictions off as they are always tough to place with their very new development squad. However I feel safe giving the win to Imperial. Nottingham and Queen’s ‘A’ will have a fierce battle throughout, and I’m going to predict that Queen’s just pip out ahead thanks to their training. I expect Oxford to have fairly matched crews, taking fourth and fifth with a large enough gap to place one crew faster than the other. Surrey will likely coming in sixth, leaving Queen’s ‘B’ behind.
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