UYBC successful in BUCS Regatta

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Photos: Ian Weir

While most York sports teams were over in Lancaster competing in Roses, UYBC was in Nottingham competing in the BUCS Regatta at the National Water Sports Centre. Due to the cancellation of the Roses rowing event in the week prior this was the clubs first regatta (side by side racing) of the season, and expectations were high for the men’s squads following strong performances at the Head of the River – with the senior men’s result the best in recent history if not ever.

For the novice men, this was their first taste of side by side racing as opposed to the time-trial like nature of head season racing. This year’s novices have trained hard so far this year, both on and off the water and were looking to reap the benefits of this hard work with a strong showing against rivals from across the country. Their racing started on Sunday morning in Beginner Eights with a time trial after the cancellation of the Beginner Coxed Fours on Saturday due to forecast high winds. In this first race they raced well with some promising split times and qualified for the semi-final. In this semi-final the novices battled with crews from Newcastle and Bath down the course just piping Bath to fifth place close behind Newcastle. This meant they had qualified for the B final in which the raced fantastically to come in fourth , ranking them tenth out of all of the novice eights in the country.

The senior men’s weekend started early on Saturday with a successful time trial gaining qualification to the eights heats. York were given a tough heat with Durham taking the easy route to the final ahead of York in second; Ouse rivals Leeds were beaten in fourth having had a nightmare day with their trailer flipping on the motorway. This meant York had to gain entry to the final via a top three finish in the repecharge; which was achieved with a solid second place behind Oxford Brookes. In the final York battled hard against crews with fresher legs, with some having only raced once compared to York’s three. The race was their best executed so far, with a big push off the half way mark keeping York in the race for the medals. Ultimately they finished fifth, which although not what they had hoped to achieve, was still a good performance against a strong field. Especially in light of the recent flooding in York hampering training and it certainly marks a definite step up from last year where York did not field an eight.

On the Sunday, half of the men’s eight stepped into a coxed four, hoping to repeat or better their silver medal from the BUCS head earlier in the season. In their heat they placed second meaning they needed to race through the repecharge once again to reach the final. In the repecharge York raced efficiently to grab their place in the final. The final was sure to be a tough race at the end of a hard weekends racing and it proved to be so. With 500m of the 2,000m course left York were just 1.5 seconds outside the medals and pushed hard finishing just outside the medals in fifth place.

Sam Agass, UYBC Senior men’s captain commented, “I’m really proud of how both the novices and the senior men performed this weekend. Our training in preparation for this weekend had been hampered with the river being flooded, preventing us from practicing as much as we’d of liked. Despite this the senior men managed to reach the final of all races which is a great achievement. The novice men performed brilliantly and I’ve got no doubt that they are going to have a very successful season. We’ve got some important races coming up, culminating in Henley Royal Regatta in week 10, with both squads being in a very strong position to have the best season ever by UYBC.”

Overall, it was a good first regatta for both men’s squads, with some promising results for the regatta season ahead. Their next race is in Nottingham once again at the Nottingham City Regatta on the 19th of May.