It was a very hot, sunny day – the perfect setting for the start of the May Bumps campaign for W3. The row down was focused and calm, showcased by a couple of nice roll-ups, something we’ve been trying to perfect in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, our practice start was a bit rushed but we tried to make the most of it despite some confusion about the countdown. Although we had done much better starts in the past, it was a good way to relieve some nerves and get used to rowing at race pace amongst spectators.
We were directly under the motorway bridge for our starting position with a bit of crosswind in our area. Therefore, we were pushed out quite late to avoid having to excessively readjust our position, however this meant our start was, again, unfortunately quite rushed, with the boat starting in quite a diagonal orientation. Nonetheless, we still began our start sequence as we normally would and began settling into our racing rhythm. Churchill W2 chasing us got some whistles but did not gain on us a significant amount, but before we knew it we were told to hold it up hard by our cox.
King’s W2 had bumped Sidney Sussex W2, incredibly quickly, but failed to clear the river, which resulted in our crew, as well as Churchill W2, having to stop. Some boats were able to squeeze through the gaps but overall around 4 of the boats were affected in the division. Consequently, we were awarded a technical row over by the umpires, which worked quite nicely in our favour.
For tomorrow’s race, we are hoping for a bump! We will aim to push out slightly earlier on in the countdown, giving us more time to establish a stable platform for our start, which will hopefully give us a good opportunity to catch up to Sidney Sussex W2 before Churchill W2 make any progress towards us.
Sushmita Ramanujam, 6