Paddling to the start line for Fours head I did feel a little unprepared only having a week of practicing in the 4 after Basel; however, something seemed to click as we crossed the start line and even though the crew I was in didn’t have any boats to push off, being 496 of 496, rowing on the familiar piece of river spurred us on.

All of the 5 UCL boats appreciated the support we had rowing past the familiar markers, especially the large roar of ‘U.C.L’ on Hammersmith bridge, which lifted each crew with the last couple of kilometres to go.  Nevertheless, the finish line seemed to only be getting further away as the muscles weakened and the cold air rattled in the lungs, the race was really a test of team spirit and having the motivation to keep going. Yet the results look positive looking forward to the upcoming head races next term.

We had solid results for all crews with the Senior Men’s boats coming 7^th, 16^th and 60^th in the IM1 4+ category and the Senior women coming 22^nd and 29^th out of 50 in the WIM2 4+ category.

And a big thank you to Kate Ward for taking the photos below.