Full results and pictures are being uploaded to the Concept 2 UK website during the day's racing.
Live-written reports on this webpage will be shown in reverse race
order.
Earlier races now archived separately so that this page remains small.
Race 30: M30-34 Hwt, Heat 2
As we come to the last race of the day, the line up includes Colin
Greenaway, Nik Fleming, Chris Rushton and Tony Larkman, who will most
likely make up the front runners here.
Matthew Cape takes first honours, leading from Nik Fleming over the first
hunderd metres. Now it's Chris Rushton's turn to lead the field, before
being overtaken by Nik. Splits of 1:29s all around of the leaders of hte
pack. Matthew Cape in third with Tony Larkman in fourth, starting to move
away from Colin Greenaway. Coming up to half way now, it's still Rushton
and Fleming swapping the lead every few strokes. Tony Larkman in third,
trying to pick up to the top two. Two top still neck and neck, with
Rushton looking to have the upper hand. Now Greenaway comes into place,
currently in fifth, but closing quickly. Still Rushton and Fleming, next
to each other, keep looking at each other splits, but Larkman in third is
splitting better than both. Greenaway now in fourth, but a way
back. 500m left to go, and it's Rushton over Fleming. Larkman really
flying now, splitting under 1:30, and could take both of them. Now into
the last 300m, and Rushton is keeping in front of Fleming, with Larkman
now right behind Fleming. Rushton pushes again, and Larkman takes second
now, no one close to these top three. Larkman runs out of course, with
Rushton holding first and Fleming in third. Times were 5:57.5 for
Rushton, Larkman 5:58.8 and Fleming with 5:59.3. Amazing finish to a
close race; in fourth Christopher Brett came through with 6:07.3.
Race 29: M30-34 Hwt, Heat 1
First heat in this catagory with the faster heat to come. Off the start
we have a blanket pack, with only a few meters separating the field. Mark
Barfoot just in the lead from Eric Ehlers, and Graheme Hill in
second. Now Barfoot faded now, with Ehlers leading now, pulling 3 seconds
faster split from the rest. He's now got handy lead over the rest, led
by John Anthony. Michael Whittaker moves into fourth, with Jeff
Wettlaufer in third. 600m to go, and Ehlers moves right away, looking
very strong over the rest. Anthony dropping back a bit, as we move into
the last 500. Ehlers now find it tough, and his lead drops a bit, before
he now puls it back to 1:33. Nigel Robson moves into third place, but
Wettlaufer isn't giving up in fourth place. Ehlers into the last 200m,
split 1:36, with John Anthony chasing with 1:30, closing on Ehlers, but
only with 50m to go. Wettlaufer's coming back now, but Ehler finishes in
6:16.7, Anthony second in 6:17.9 and Wettlaufer managed to overtake Robson
to finish in third place in 6:21.1. With the top guns in the next race
looking to break 6 minutes, these times won't be good enough for a medal.
Race 28: M35-39 Hwt, Heat 2
Martin Andrews out first, but gives overtaken by Robin Brew who now leads
from Craig Barstow with Michael O'Mahony currently in third. Neal Ridge
just sneaks into third, with just over half way to go. Brew is faltering
in the lead, splits rising as he pays for early speed. Barstow closing on
first place, with split of 3 seconds faster, now takes the lead at 800 to
go. Back in third and fourth we've got Ridge and O'Mahony in third and
fourth respectively. Now Ridge goes past Brew to take second place,
Barstow in the lead at 1:33 split, being matched by Ridge in second. Into
the last 500m for the race leaders. Brew drops down the leader
board; whilst Ridge in second is using his long arms to get a huge reach
at the catch. Starting to find it hard though, so still Barstow in the
lead. Now O'Mahony moves in to second, with Andrew Sangster in fourth,
trying to move into third. Barstow wins it in 6:08.4, Ridge second with
6:15.0. Just in the last 100m Robert Alderson put in a burst to come
through into third place in 6:17.0, pushing Sangster fourth in 6:17.8.
Correction here; it was O'Mahony who got second place, with Ridge dropping
down the leaderboard as he faded into the line. So that's Barstow,
O'Mahony, Alderson, Sangster for the final positions in this catagory.
Just been announced that Oxford have won both the women's college event
and men's college events, and being awards prizes by a grinning ex-Oxford
rower, Andrew Lindsay.
Other team winners are the juniors; women's junior team winners are King's
School Worcester, men's junior winners are Radley.
Race
27: M35-39 Hwt, Heat 1
John O'Grady pulling 1:33s streaks off into the lead; with a projected
time of 6:34 he may pay for this later. Paul Neal now pushes into third
with Haffenden now in front of O'Grady. Rik Yapp moves into fourth,
with Haffenden going steadilty away from the pack. Neal now into second,
O'Grady slipping to third now. Just over half way now, with Neal looking
secure in second place, with Yapp into third ahead of O'Grady - 5 seconds
difference in the slip there. Best splits are 1:38-1:37 from the top two,
Haffenden and Neal. Yapp pushing into these two, with Haffenden starting
to fade a litte. Haffenden is away from the field, but his technique is a
little waywards, with hands going up over the knees on the
recovery. Chris Grant has moved into fourth now, trying to get on touch
with Yapp. Neal closes on Haffenden, with Yapp closing on Neal. Only
200m left, with the top of the leaderboard all closing up. Neal splitting
7seconds lower than Haffenden, he may just take the lead - yes, he's just
made it, with 20m left to row, a really tight finish on this race. Looks
like Yapp put in a major push there at the finish and took both Neal and
Haffenden to take first place, although the faster second heat still to
come before medals are decided. Conformation now, we have Rik Yapp with
6:26.4, Neal with 6:26.5, Gary Haffenden third with 6:26.6 and Chris Grant
with 6:26.7 just missing out on fourth place. Cracking stuff there, a
great finish. However, with the Championship record held by a certain
S. Redgrave at 5:51.1, they have a little way to go before challenging
that.
Race 26: M40-44 Hwt, Heat 2
George Gillies leads from the start, ahead of John Dixon, who has a very
spririted pack on his heals challenging for third. We've got Phil Brown,
Shawn Thrower and Russel Lloyd all close, with Marcus Harvey and Sean
Tunney aiming to join them. Still Gillies out in front, with Dixon
undersplitting him, and starting to close on the lead. Gillies knows how
close Dixon is to him, and these two are starting to drop everyone
else. Tunney moves into third place, but hasn't got a big gap behind
him. Marcus Harvey has stopped; looks like he's having a few problems
there. Dixon now moves into the lead with 700m to go, Tunney still in
third, but there's a big gap between second and third. Nothing in it for
third place. Dixon really pilling it on now, moving right away from
Gillies. Dixon has 300m to go, splitting 1:29 with a 40m lead. Tunney's
dropped into fifth, with Brown and Lloyd neck and neck for third and
fourth place. Dixon looking really good for a new championship record,
Brown trying to get into third place, but Lloyd currently has the upper
hand. Very close on the line for third fourth and fifth, but Dixon takes
the win with 6:04.9, Gillies second with 6:13.8, Brown and Lloyd with
6:16 and they're sorting out the final result as we speak. On the clock,
Lloyd got 6:16.1, with Brown with 6:16.6, Lloyd taking it in the last few
seconds of the race. John Dixon set a new British 40-49 and new
Championship
record with that result, beating Andy Ripley's British record of 6:06.3.
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Race 25: M45-49 Hwt, M40-44 Hwt Heat 1
William Riley leads the way over the first few hundred, with Alistair
Asher following him and opening up a gap over the field. Now they swap
the lead stroke by stroke, with Andrew Millar and Carl Clinton in third
and fourth. Asher, Riley, Millar still sit in the lead, all in the 45H
class. Asher over Riley still lead the field a few metres apart, with
Millar just infront of a chasing pack. Wayne Howards is in that chasing
pack, sitting fifth, with a interesting style - bent arms before that
catch, but he's clearly strong. Millar is closing on Riley for second,
with Asher still out in front. Milar takes second, with 550m to go, with
Asher 40m in front of second.
Race 24: MU23 Hwt This is the second heat, so
Shannon, Kadinopoulos and Matheson need to watch out: their times are
under threat. To add a bit of spice, the organisers have not only
alternated five OUBC/CUBC oarsmen on the top ergs, but they are busy
showing footage of last year's Boat Race to give a bit of added
motivation. Off they go, and first to show is Luke McGee, with Steve
Rowbotham in second place and Peter Fields pushing through both of them.
400 gone, Fields is on 1:24, leading Rowbotham and McGee neck and neck on
1:25 split. Alex Partridge moving past Ben Clare into fourth, but Fields
is streaking ahead now, and has over 30 metres on Rowbotham and McGee.
Nearly half way, Fields out in front, now splitting 1:29, everyone else
above 1:30. McGee in second, Rowbotham in third, Alex McGarel-Grove
coming into fourth as McGee looks to be in trouble. Ben Clare now coming
back into contention, McGee picks up again and goes back into second,
still Fields ahead with 500 to go, by a clear few seconds. Into the last
stretch, it's Fields from McGee, Rowbotham and Clare, Clare starting to
close, into third, Fields still at 1:29, McGee on 1:26, but may be too far
away, Rowbotham fading into fourth now. Fields finishes in 5:52.2, a new
British record, and promptly collapses off his erg as the rest finish.
Silver is 5:55.3 for McGee, bronze 5:58.8 for Clare, and while Rowbotham
is fourth in 6:00.6. Honours even for Leander, OUBC and CUBC there.
Race 23: MU23 L
They're halfway through, Tom Johnson has led from the start, followed by
Jesse Elzinga, and both lead Ian McCaig and Alisdair Stuart. There is a
big pack for fourth, but at the moment the two top places are well in
control. Elzinga moves past Johnson with 750 to go, and McCaig sits in
third, by a short head. Elzinga moving away with 1:33 split, Johnson
having trouble at 1:37, then he starts to pull it back. Elzinga now 25
metres up, with 450 to go, Johnson holding back McCaig, but Elzinga is
putting in a tremendous performance. Chris Goodwin of Notts Uni goes past
McCaig into bronze position with 250 to go, and Elzinga cruising as
Goodwin closes on Johnson. Here come the last few strokes: Elzinga takes
gold, Johnson silver, as Elizinga immediately stands up looking not at all
bothered, and Goodwin holds onto bronze. Times Elzinga 6:16.2, Johnson
6:22.2, Goodwin 6:24.1.
Men's Open Further Results
Going back to the earlier race, we had a Rowing Service reporter sitting
on the floor in front of Garbett and Cracknell's ergs during their epic
Open heat. Pinsent's face was obscured a bit of the time by over-eager
cameramen anxious to catch every drip of sweat (literally!), but we
managed to get a feel for what was going on in that battle of the
Titans. Pinsent and Cracknell had known that the latter would go off
harder, and the former find a better finish, but their main plan was to
avoid driving each other into the ground and letting someone else take the
title. Coach Jurgen Grobler, asked beforehand who he thought would win,
refused to bet, but said both could go under 5:50: good times for this
early in the season.
Race 22: MU23 H
Andrew Shannon shows first, with Ben Kadinopoulos in second. Kevin Watson
moves into third, with average split of about 1:30 at the minute. First
400m gone, and it's still Shannon in the lead from Kadinopoulos, with
Watson from Andy Matheson for the third place. The top three splitting
1:32, holding position with 600m gone. Watson is creeping up towards
second place, with Nick Tuppen in fourth from Matheson. Shannon moves
into a better lead as Watson and Kadinopoulos battle for second - even at
the minute., Shannon is really pulling long, leaning right back similar
to Andy Ripley earlier in the day. Watson just sneaks into second place
now, with 800m to go. Shannon has about 15m on the battle for second
place. Kadinopoulos moves back into second, and trys to move on
Shannon. Splits sliding to 1:33-1:34, but still the first
three. Matheson moves back into fourth, but gets overtaken by Tom
Broadway. 200m to go, Shannon uncatchable, Kadinopoulos is a solid
second, but Broadway and Matheson racing for third. Shannon starts to
falter, with Kadinopoulos chasing hard, but Shannon holds on to first,
Kadinopoulos second, with Matheson making third place on the
line. Andrew Shannon 6:08.7, Ben Kadinopoulos 6:09.2 and Andy Matheson
6:10.4 make the first three. Matheson making the placings by less than a
second. Note that these are the first heat winners only: race 24 will
see another bunch of competitive pullers in action.
So, off they blasted, P&C whizzing off immediately. In the first
minute their splits went like this: 1:25.5, 1:22.9, 1:21.4, 1:20.3, 1:19,
1:18 - how many would kill for splits like that? Anyway, they settled
neck and neck, then James inched away over the second quarter of the race,
as both established a massive lead over the chasing pack, led by Tom
Westerling. They were still deadsplitting at two minutes gone, but
Crackers was starting to slightly edge forward with a better technique,
picking the wheel up earlier. 1100 to go, still neck and neck, splitting
1:21.1, then the rest, as commentated on, was thrilling. Cracknell
stuffed in a deliberate huge move from 750-250 to go, aiming to neutralise
Pinsent's staggeringly hard finish, but then saw Pinsent's position moving
closer metre by metre as the last 100 approached. Up went the Pinsent rate, JC unable to match him, and the lead swapped on the line. It was five minutes before anyone thought to tell Pinsent that he had won...