Over the May bank holiday weekend, the senior women’s squad sent a club 8+ to race at Wallingford Regatta at Eton Dorney, home of the London 2012 Olympic regatta. The crew faced some strong competition in their heat, which was comfortably won by Grosvenor RC. Cantabs finished second, with their time making them the fourth fastest of six qualifiers going through to the final.
Courtesy of Thomas Durrant
Knowing they had nothing to lose, the crew of Jordan Bruce, Ellie Darlington, Lindsey Tate, Bailee Stratton, Merodie Rose, Barbora Janulikova, Maddie Koesterman and Georgia Vann decided on a strategy of all-out racing to the k and then hold on, to see what they were capable of.
In what was described as the most exciting race of the day, Grosvenor once again pulled ahead of the rest of the field, leaving the remainder neck-a-neck until the half way mark. At half way, cox Esther Momcilovic inspired her crew to hold on and push through, very gradually extending their lead over the remaining crews, fighting it out to the very end with City of Oxford and Agecroft. At the finish, only 0.9 seconds separated second and fourth place, with Cantabs reducing the deficit between themselves and Grosvenor compared to the earlier heat.
Photo courtesy of Claire Raisen
Coach Tom Copeland said, “This was an incredibly exciting race, and gave the crew the opportunity to really demonstrate their mental toughness and commitment to bettering their performance every time they get on the water. There are still 7 weeks to go until Henley Women’s, so the crew has a lot of speed to gain and they will take a lot of confidence from this performance.”
Captain Ellie Darlington said, “Particular credit should go to Maddie Koesterman, who contracted a stomach bug the day before, but soldiered on to race after a 4:15am alarm and just 45 minutes of sleep, having not eaten anything since 11am the day before! It’s this kind of thing which demonstrates the passion and dedication that this crew have to constantly improve and produce such thrilling racing.”
A write-up of the race can be found on the Cambridge News website.
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