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The University Boat Club put in a strong performance at its own flagship event, White Rose Head, on the River Ouse in York on Sunday.
The event saw universities and colleges from across the North of England travel to the city for numerous time trial style races. There were five senior and three novice categories, and UYBC had entrants in every category, coming away with three victories.
The event got underway slightly behind schedule, but the delay didn’t seem to affect the York men’s eight who raced out of the blocks. Boats in the race are set off at regular intervals, but the York boat, which was the first to start, raced ahead of the competitors in its category. They finished over a minute before their nearest rival, which meant that a 10 second penalty for having been late to the start did not cost them in the slightest.
There was success also for the women’s four, who completed an impressive effort to finish 30 seconds ahead of Manchester.
Four categories raced in division one, followed by a short break before the four remaining categories raced in division two. There was further success for York in the afternoon, as the women’s eight followed their colleagues in the four to claim victory. They, too, defeated a crew from Manchester by a little over 30 seconds.
In the other categories, there was success for Sheffield, whose crews won both novice women’s eight and the men’s coxless fours. There were also race wins for Sheffield Hallam (novice men’s four), Manchester (men’s four) and Salford (novice eight).
The dedication of the teams in the cold conditions was clear for all to see, as the crews were regularly seen exhausted as they crossed the finish line near The Lowther after completing the three kilometre course.
The event did not pass without incident; there were a few collisions, as is the nature of time trial based rowing, one involving two boats from UYBC. But that could not dampen spirits, and there were no major hitches before the final boat, a novice four from Hull, became the last to finish at about 2:15pm, allowing the spectators and, most of all, the hard-working volunteers from UYBC who helped the event run smoothly, escape the December chill.