Hammersmith Head race report

Both our Junior Boy's Eight and Senior Women's Eight enjoyed getting out on the water and racing Hammersmith Head on Sunday 18th February.

Kate from our Senior Women's Eight shares her reflections on the race: 

Hammersmith Head was the second race of the season for the women’s squad. We’d had a great race at Quintin in January so exceptions were high. This time we were assigned to the Masters category - always a tough one, but we were determined to do well nonetheless. 

Conny expertly navigated us smoothly through the trickiness of 300 boats marshalling along the shore (as well as multiple swans!) and thankfully we were blessed with good weather, so were not too cold when we finally turned onto the start. We realised that the boat immediately behind us was stroked by none other than our coach Mel (Auriol Kensington), which I think both simultaneously scared us and inspired us to do well! 

We turned into the fast stream passed under Chiswick Bridge and were off, with Mel’s crew hot on our heels. We kept our heads though and used them to ‘push off’, holding them off and even seemingly sending them into the slower water at times. This provided us with great focus to keep pushing hard and at the same time, Conny set her sights on a competitor's boat ahead of us, which we gradually hunted down and overtook. Mel’s crew was still just behind us, overtaking them also, and we pushed on into the home stretch past the island together. Suddenly, out of nowhere a new crew appeared (from a different category) and managed to pull up in between us and Auriol Kensington. However, this came just at the right time and we found the extra inches and push to hold both crews off right to the finish at Hammersmith Bridge. 

It was very exciting, and whilst these crews naturally finished above us time-wise, I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say it was one of the most exciting races we’ve ever been in. 

As always a huge thank you to our coaches and Cox Conny, who steered through a great race, and all the people who cheered us on whilst marshalling, throughout the course and at finish. It’s always such a boost to hear your shouts of encouragement! 

The next race is the big one - WEHORR Sat 9th March at 3:30pm. Hope to see you there!