On Saturday (15th June) saw the final race before Henley, final race to guarantee pre-qualification. Conditions were classic Marlow, cold, wet and extremely windy. The course resembled the North Sea rather than the beautifully calm 2k racing lake which hosted the Olympic regatta twelve months before.
The coxless IV made their push for pre-qualification knowing that a final place would do it, however things did not go according to plan with the two man coming off his seat at the start and then they proceeded to “clip” a number of bouys on the way down. This meant that they failed to make the rep, losing to a crew they had destroyed two weeks before.
For the coxed IV the story was a little better, due to lack of entries they had already made the elite final in the afternoon. But before the elite final they had the somewhat impossible task of trying to make it through to the final of Senior Coxed IV – which for some reason was packed with all the top crews: (City of Bristol, Dublin Uni A, Durham A, ISIS, Molesey A, Tyne, Uni of London (UL), Upper Thames and University of the West of England A), to final in this category would take something special. It was obvious from the Heat that the coxed IV would have to go through the rep, even the most optimistic rower knew that to get “straight to final” would be a somewhat impossible task. The rep saw Curlew pitched up against UL, Tyne and City of Bristol For Video Click Here – UL were odds on favourites having finalled at Met and also had won the Price Albert the year before. The coxed IV finally clicked and coped with the conditions brilliantly to record their best result of the season – moving away from UL and Tyne to record a 2 lengths victory to make it to the final of Senior Coxed IVs at Marlow. Its been a long time since a Curlew RC boat graced a Senior & Elite final at Marlow…The coxed IV are just hoping that they have done enough to secure a pre-qualification slot.