During 30th April and 2nd May, the University of Plymouth Rowing Club attended the annual BUCS regatta event in Nottingham at the National Water Sports Centre.
The event is regarded as one of, if not, the biggest rowing events in the University Rowing Calendar and is attended by thousands of students from Universities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Amongst those from UPRC, were a squad of beginner girls, who started rowing in October of 2021. To qualify as a beginner, you must be in your first year of the sport, so prior to coming to University, these students had never stepped foot in a boat before.
Through our learn to row course that we run at our host club in Totnes, the students began to fall in love with the sport and attended regular training sessions on both the land and the water with the end goal being to make the semi-finals of BUCS regatta.
Fast forward 6 months, from the end of the learn to row course, the crews were formulated and we sent two women's beginner coxless quadruple sculls, amongst various other boats, to the regatta.
The way in which the event works is that all entries in that category (Women's Beginner 4x-) would race a 1,500m time trial in order to seed them for finals, with the top 12 making the semi-finals and every group of 6 thereafter being placed into minor finals.
Our A crew of Erin Scurfield, Emma Sherwood, Kate Moore and Rosie Rayner placed 2nd and our B crew of Zoe Lunt, Mia Gibbs, Lucy Blacker and Jess Allen finished 8th, meaning both crews qualified for the semi-finals, with one crew in each.
The B crew were unlucky to finish 5th/6 in their semi final, meaning they progressed to the B final where they secured a 3rd place finish meaning they finished 9th overall out of the 25 crews that were entered into this event, however, the A crew won their semi-final placing them into the A final and in contention to medal.
The A crew managed to secure second place in the A final, earning them a silver medal, falling just short of 1st behind Edinburgh University, who run a High Performance Rowing Programme.
With this fantastic achievement in mind, it is worth mentioning that the University Rowing Club does not have it's own boats, boat house, land training facilities or equipment. Students have to travel 45 mins each way to Totnes just to be able to train using borrowed equipment and rented facilities. Students have to be extremely motivated to do this and it does take away a large chunk of time just spent on travelling. As a club, we are continually looking for support from the University or potential sponsors as well as doing fundraising events to try and address these issues to put us in a better position to offer more and better opportunities for current and prospective members. If we were able to secure a facility with some rowing specific equipment in Plymouth, this would not only save the students a considerable amount of time and money spent on fuel and travel to Totnes, but it would also help engage and retain more new members who are currently put off by the vast amount of travel involved. In addition to this, if more funding was available, more essential equipment could be purchased to help our members. All of this, in turn, would help give better opportunities for students and hopefully produce even better athletes who can go on to represent the University at prestigious events such as BUCS regatta, Head of the River Races, Henley Women's Regatta, Henley Royal Regatta and even attending Great Britain Trials.
When you consider that the girls A crew came 2nd by 6 seconds to Edinburgh, who run a High Performance Rowing Programme and are funded tens of thousands of pounds per year, multiple full time coaching staff, their own facilities and equipment, what the girls achieved at BUCS in May is incredible.
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