Metropolitan Regatta 2022

Saturday

Metropolitan Regatta is an exciting and challenging regatta on the path up to Henley Royal Regatta, bringing together competent competitors from around the U.K. The first day of racing had unfavourable conditions, namely high wind speeds, testing the skill of our athletes over the 2km course.

The first Reading crew to race down the course was the Woman’s open quads (W4x). The ‘A’ crew featuring Leah, Flora, Finn and Alex placed 6th in their time trial, putting them into the A final. The ‘B’ crew featuring Anna, Poppy, Beth and Lottie finished 18th in their time trial, as finals were mixed with junior crew results, the W4x (B) was put into the D final. Both crews raced hard in tough conditions to finish 8th and 2nd in their respective finals, an important set of results for the A crew in the lead up to Henley Woman’s Regatta.

Next was the Men’s open quads (M4x). The A crew, comprised of Louis, Sol, Olly and Josh finished their time trial in 2nd place, putting them into the A final. The B crew, of Jack, Trent, Tom and Jonjo placed 13th, putting them into the B final, in which they later finished 7th after a crab in the challenging conditions at the 500m mark. The A crew went onto place 2nd in their A final, less than a second off the winners. This remarkable result will continue their momentum into the Prince of Wales challenge cup at HRR in a few weeks time.

The M4x was followed by our LW2x. This boat is a composite boat, consisting of Lauren Maddison from Reading University Boat Club, and Annabelle Ruinet from Marlow rowing club. The girls put in an amazing performance despite the tough conditions, placing 1st in the time trial by 7.1s in both the lightweight and open weight classes. This result was consistent in the A final, where the lightweight combination put in some amazing sculling to win the event.

The last event of the day was the Men’s lightweight and heavyweight single sculls. Al, our lightweight single, placed 6th in the LM1x time trial, 30th overall. Jacob placed 31st, right behind Al, sending them both to the D final. Al and Jacob went onto place 4th and 5th respectively in their D final in some fun inter-club racing within the regatta. Our third sculler Ed placed 15th in the time trial and finished the day with a 7th place finish in his B final, a good stepping stone for all aspiring scullers into the rest of the season.

Sunday

The Sunday of racing had less challenging conditions providing a flat lake and all RUBC athletes were excited to get stuck in.

The day began with the Men’s 2x consisting of Sol and Olly from the M4x (A). The boys got off to a great start placing 3rd in the time trial behind some of the most competitive crews nationally. The A final saw consistent results with the double finishing in 3rd place, a great result which will no doubt add momentum for the pair individually and in the 4x.

This was followed with the woman’s singles, both of which entering as lightweights. Lauren placed 4th in her time trial, only 0.1s behind 3rd, and placed 2nd in the Lw1x category. She then went on to up her position placing 3rd in the A final against other open weight scullers, adding yet another medal position to the day. This calibre of result is no surprise from Lauren and we are very excited to see how she continues through Henley Woman’s and GBRT trials.

Alex, our second Lw1x from our W4x (A), placed 7th in lightweight and 15th overall in her time trial, putting her in the B final. She then went on to up her position from the time trial, finishing 6th in her final. This is a very competitive result from the upcoming lightweight sculler and the result has no doubt built momentum for Alex and her crewmates in the 4x leading into Henley Woman’s Regatta.

The afternoon of racing saw 4 mens scullers compete. After an amazing 4th place finish at BUCS regatta in the championship single, Josh had his eyes set on making his mark on the rest of the senior field at Met regatta. He placed an outstanding joint second in his time trial behind the sculler Callum Dixon from Twickenham who had just returned from placing 4th in the single at the World Cup 1 for GB. Josh then went onto place 5th in his A final against some of the best U23 and senior scullers from around the UK. This result is very exciting and shows the high standard of RUBC sculling.

Our second M1x Louis placed 11th in the time trial, a very solid result in a field of 39 high quality scullers, only a few seconds off the A final. Louis then went onto place 8th in his final, gaining valuable experience for the future.

Our third open weight M1x Jacob is an aspiring sculler looking to consistently build on his results throughout the season. He placed 26th in his time trial, putting him into the D final where he had been on the Saturday of racing. Jacob remarkably improved on his Saturday result, finishing in 3rd in his final. This shows his steep learning curve and improvement in his single and we are exited to see what he can produce over the course of the next year.

Finally, our Lm1x Al followed a similar learning curve to Jacob, this time placing 23rd (6th in lightweight) in his time trial, putting him into the C final. Al then placed 6th in his final, a 6 place improvement on his performance on Saturday, again showing the scullers determination and skill.

Overall, Met Regatta saw RUBC gain 6 A finals and 4 medal positions out of 13 entries. At such a competitive regatta, this is a very high standard of performance which was enabled by our athletes dedication to training and the coaches (Chris, Charlie and Wills) expertise and continuing hard work.

These results set a strong foundation for the remaining season and we are very excited to see what our athletes can produce in the following weeks. #PurplePride

Henley women's final

BUCS review for the 2021-2022 Season