Issue 154

Rowers take silver

12th March 2007

Saturday 3 March saw the heavily anticipated annual Head of the Taff rowing event in Cardiff. Amongst the Welsh contenders were rivals Swansea University and Cardiff University. The 3.7km event is used as a warm up for the rowing highlight of the year; The Welsh Boat Race.

Swansea Uni RC has come on leaps and bounds over the short timescale they have been competing, and there were high expectations for their five crews involved.

The crews were made up of two men's coxed fours and three women's coxed fours; a good selection considering the relatively small club size.

The day started out with the men's division racing first. All crews had to row against the fast flowing stream to the start line, where they would turn around and begin their time trial at approximate twentysecond intervals. The two competing mens crews will comprise the full eight-man squad in the coming boat race, so this was going to be a good indicator for comparison with the opposition eight.

After battling the onset of lactic acid, the men had to contend with strong winds and choppy conditions in the final kilometre. Both crews looked good as they past under the bridge used as a vantage point for the Swansea supporters. The results showed the B crew coming sixth and the A crew coming second out of nine, a mere twelve seconds behind Cardiff A crew.

The afternoon saw a turn for the worse in wind and water conditions, but the womens crews were undeterred. The womens A crew followed in the mens A crews puddles, coming second to the Cardiff A crew.

The B crew came a respectable fourth, but a twist in results showed the C crew performing marvellously coming third.

The second place results in Cardiff have not dampened spirits, rather creating the opposite effect, fuelling the athlete's appetites to make this year Swansea's year to take the Tomos Watkin Welsh Boat Race title.

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