UCCRC make mark in UK

The Fours Head of the River is one of the biggest head races (time trial) on the calender in the UK with nearly 500 crews entered, it is on the tideway course between Chiswick and Putney, one of the 'homes of rowing' in the World and attracts the best crews in the UK. The top crews contain World and Olympic medalists and as an overseas crew UCCRC had to compete directly with this competition in Elite Quads, the fastest boat category racing. The race is 6.8km and takes a crew about 19 minutes so it is a major physical and mental challenge. All these factors are precisely why UCCRC ventured across the Irish Sea.
The lads stuck to a simple race plan over the course and over took 4 crews, the post race feedback, before the times had been calculated was mixed- positive but with a clear recognition of where they could do better- an indication of the determination of this crew to be as good as they possibly can be. After far too long the result came out. 5th in Elite quad sculls out of 14 and 23rd over all out of 495 crews. The crew in first place was made up of half of the athletes from the Olympic sculling final in London, with the 4th member being a World Champion from the Croatian quad and the crew in second place contained half the Great Britain crew that won a Bronze medal at the World Championships. This is an outstanding result for the crew, club and college. Almost all the crews that placed in front of UCCRC were from funded 'High Performance' British Rowing centres or Oxford University or Cambridge University. The only other universities that could put a crew in front of UCC were the University of London, Oxford Brookes and Imperial College, all three are established rowing centres with a history of success at events such as Henley Royal Regatta.
The most exciting fact is that the crew knew immediately after racing and before seeing the result that they can go faster, the rate was relatively low and the consistency was judged to have been off in two key areas, there is also strong competition to get into this boat from the rest of the squad. The squad is now back in training and has a two week camp after the end of this term. Their next race will be Muckross Head on Saturday, the lads will be racing in singles, against each other for their place- as it should be.
Short and not great quality, taken from Hammersmith Bridge, first clip is UCCRC, second is Tideway Scullers, the overall winners.