Students make their mark on the Tideway
In the popular marketing speak of TV sport schedules you could happily
bill the College’s third month of the year sports-wise as “Manic March”. Throughout
the month the sporting calendar is at maximum capacity as virtually every student
sports team has by this stage opened the account for its competitive season. Indeed
for many it is the business end of the season as local derbies, finals,
championships, silverware or promotion and relegation clashes all come into
being. At the centre was the weekend of the 14th-16th March, which, on the
Friday had seen the finale to the 2014 London Varsity Series between King’s and
UCL, followed by the charitable Great Rag Run and London Universities’ Sports
League (LUSL) Finals hosted at King’s on Sunday. Crucially sandwiched
between these events: the Women’s Eights Head of the River Race (WEHORR), which
took place on Saturday 18th March on the Thames in London.
In the national women’s rowing calendar the event is perhaps paradoxically
something of a beginning and an ending. Taking place around the middle of a
rowing season that will have begun back in September and likely end in July or
August, WEHORR, is usually the closing event of the winter season and the accompanying
months of gruelling long-distance endurance training and racing. The event
equally provides the first chance for club crews to measure themselves
nationally ahead of the transition into summer regatta racing. As a result
WEHORR is usually targeted as the first of the major domestic rowing
competitions.
Despite flooding and weather conditions earlier in the year playing
havoc with many rowing events and clubs, the race was scheduled as expected and
attracted some 300 entries composed of local, national and even international
crews. King’s College London Boat Club (KCLBC) entered two eight women crews
into the race (KCL ‘A’ and ‘B’), where the format sees crews race successively
in procession whilst attempting to post the quickest overall time to complete
the course. The course itself is that of the famous University Boatrace in reverse;
starting at Chiswick Bridge and ending some 4.2 miles later at Putney Bridge.
KCL ‘A’ taking advantage of rowing “at home” on their local stretch of
water produced a good result in their new Italian made eight finishing 81st
overall and 20th within their Intermediate 3 category. Meanwhile KCL ‘B’ also
showed promise finishing 172nd and beating several other ‘A’ crews placed in
their division.
The two KCLBC boats were not the College’s sole representatives that
day. Competing as part of the University of London Boat Club (ULBC), nutrition
student Rosa Atkinson featured in the bow seat of ULBC’s highly competitive 1st
eight who powered their way to an 8th place overall finish. Rosa, who is
supported by the King’s Elite programme, represented Great Britain at the Under-23
World Rowing Championships as a lightweight rower last summer and is trialling this
year once again to earn her spot on the Under-23 rowing team. In February she
gave an update on her season so far, and balancing the challenges of trialling
individually with preparing for WEHORR:
“I spent the new year on training camp with my club [ULBC] in
Portugal, which was very productive as we were able to get a lot of
mileage done on the water, in a variety of crew boats. I therefore came
off this camp feeling very fit. Since then I have put more of a focus
on making technical changes in my single [scull], which is time
consuming but rewarding when I get it right!”
“With regards to racing, we had our first race of the year, Quintin
Head Race… which we use as a preparation race for one of our main club
races of the year - the Women’s Head of the River Race - which is in mid-March.”
“I was selected to be in the Women’s 1st Eight for this event and
we achieved a very respectable 3rd fastest women’s crew position.”
“After this we will be back in the eight training for the
Women's head…We are looking to be right up there with the best crews in
the top 10, competing against the best athletes, including current Team GB
senior rowers, this will be a tough ask but we will be confident
after a solid block of training that we can perform on the day.”
The prediction proved correct as the ULBC crew maintained its top 10
position from last year, finishing in a time of 19 minutes exactly; 1 minute
and 18 seconds shy of the fastest time posted by a composite crew of senior
Team GB rowers. On board that winning crew, and sitting amongst several medallists
from London 2012, was King’s PhD postgraduate Zoe Lee. Representing
Sport Imperial Boat Club, the King’s postgraduate has been a member of the Senior GB
rowing team since 2011 and was a bronze medallist at the European Rowing
Championships in 2012. The result means that the College has had overall
representative winners for the past two years, as Rosa had ironically also
featured in a Sport Imperial crew that won the headship in 2013, last year.
Following the successes of the two athletes at WEHORR the focus for
both is now likely to turn back towards national selection with GB rowing
trials and a Senior Rowing World Cup coming up in the next month. In this King’s
Sport wishes them both the best of luck!