Champs Head 2012 W2 report

Harriet Christie, W2, seat 3

Some last minute crew changes and relatively few outings as a complete crew were not able to stop W2's determined course to victory on this beautifully sunny May morning. A nice neat row down and some promising practice starts had the crew excited and eager to prove themselves. We knew the race was short, and so we would have to give our all right from the beginning, and all nine crew members were ready to do just that.

We went off with a good fast start and attacked the race head on. Georgie guided an excellent first corner, calling names individually for that extra push to bring us around. Rounding the bend, we hit the headwind, but managed to keep our drive speed up by staying loose and relaxed through the pressure. Calls along the way kept us focused and pushing hard, and there were some excellent pickups on the Reach and a particularly good change under the railway bridge coming into the last 500 metres of the course. We were gaining fast on Girton, giving us all that extra motivation to catch them, and heard Matt, our coach, calling '5 lengths!', '3 lengths', '1 length!!' (speckled with some slightly less restrained language), until as we were just crossing the finish line we had managed to were overlapping by about half a length.

It was an excellent performance from every single crew member and the success of the day really lifted the crew and gave us some confidence in our abilities. Now we will use this lift to get us training hard for bumps, where hopefully we can continue to rule the river! Well done W2!