Metropolitan Regatta & Belgrade World Cup 1

Used by our women's squad as preparation for Henley Women's Regatta, the two-day Metropolitan Regatta sees close racing over two days.

The Women's Championship 8+ produced strong performances on both days. 3rd place in the Champ 8+ on Saturday was backed up with 4th place in Challenge 8s on Sunday. There was a similar success in the Women's Championship Quads racing to third place on both days. Saturday saw the crew of Lola Anderson, Amy Bowman, Fiona Chestnutt and Frances Russell perform well, while Nicole Lamb won the Tier 2 single. The crew switched around for the next day, with Lamb moving into the quad and taking the place of Bowman.

The rest of the women's squad saw some tough racing across all their races. The Tier 2 Quad placed 4th in their heat on Saturday before stepping up to Champ and placing 6th in the heat the following day. Kat Bulmer and Lizzie Fuller performed well against strong opposition to place 4th in their heat on both days of racing. The Champ 4- also produced the same result in their two races, finishing 7th in the heat twice.

This year, NUBC also sent a composite Men's quad who race in the Championship event. James Stevenson and Dom Jackson raced alongside Dale Flockhart (Edinburgh University) and Seb Matthews (Leander Club) in a combination that is the provisional Lightweight U23 Quad. They placed third on Sunday.

The First World Regatta also concluded on Sunday. James Rudkin won silver, half a length behind Germany in the M8+. Tom Ford won his heat and semi-final in the M4- but ultimately placed 5th in a very competitive final. His sister, Emily produced an excellent 6th place in the W2- and George Rossiter won the 'B' final of the Men's Pair.

This weekend sees our squads race at Durham Regatta as everyone's respective Henley campaigns begin to gather momentum.

Written by Fergus Mainland

Photos by David Stephenson and World Rowing