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With a record 1100 entries from 69 universities totaling around 3000 participants, the BUCS Rowing Regatta has grown significantly in recent years and attracts higher and higher levels of competition from university teams throughout the United Kingdom.

There was no shortage of talent and power at this year’s event, which is used to select Great Britain;s representative teams for the European Universities Rowing Championships taking place in Hannover, Germany from 9-12 September 2015.

 Led by a strong group of lightweights, Durham had one of their best regatta’s to date, topping the women’s points table ahead of Cambridge, Imperial College, Exeter, and Newcastle. In the men’s racing, Newcastle led in points over Edinburough, Imperial College, Oxford Brookes, and Durham.

Durham’s head coach, Oliver Wade Hall-Craggs had only praise for his team’s accomplishments on and off the water: “For the individual athletes it is a huge milestone in their development,” says Hall-Craggs of participation at the BUCS regatta. “Perhaps most of all there were tight races that showed them all their hard work was worth it and gave them huge confidence.”

Durham’s lightweight men’s crew demonstrated their skill by winning both the lightweight men’s four and the lightweight men’s quad. The Durham women also took the top of the podium in the lightweight women’s four and the lightweight women’s quad.

Cambridge took gold in the championship women’s eight with Izzy Vyvyan taking the place of Hannah Evans alongside the eight other members of their 2015 Boat Race crew (Rosemary Ostfeld, Holly Hill, Melissa Wilson, Caroline Reid, Fanny Belais, Daphne Martschenko, and Ashton Brown). Second place went to Newcastle and third to Oxford Brookes.

The championship men’s eight was won by Oxford Brookes. Newcastle finished second while Imperial College finished third.

The lightweight women’s eight saw Oxford score a victory over Cambridge with one line up change from their Henley Boat Race crew of J Mieszkowska replacing Rebecca Lane to join the crew (Ellie Backhouse, Joanna Green, Hannah Farley, Harriet McCay, Hannah Lovell, Dani Edmunds, Megan Hamer, and Ayesha Rasheed).  Durham placed second and Cambridge third in this event.

Edinburgh bested Durham by just 0.39 to capture gold in the men’s lightweight eight. Imperial College rounded out the top three.

In the small boats, the Scottish teams showed their strength. Glasgow University’s Emma McDonald impressed with wins in the  lightweight women’s single, championship women’s single, lightweight women’s pair (with Flora Wharton) and championship women’s pair (with Claire Aitken); while Edinburgh won both the  championship men’s pair (Rufus Scholefield and Henry Millar) and the  lightweight men’s double (Matthew Curtis and Kieran Brown).

The remaining small boat events went to a variety of teams. Imperial’s (Mel Wilson) took two golds, winning  the  championship women’s single and the  championship women’s double (with Michelle Vezie). The  championship men’s single went to Cardiff (Tom Barras). Manchester (Peter Zelinka)  won the  lightweight men’s single.

The lightweight men’s pair was taken by Newcastle (Tom Mountain and George Patrick). Exeter (Hannah Traylen and Jess Elkington) won the  lightweight women’s double. The  championship men’s double went to Reading (Stewart Innes and Sam Twine).

 “The BUCS Regatta is the highlight in the university rowing calendar,” says Hayden Arrowsmith, Event Coordinator for rowing at BUCS, “with entrants from all of the UK competing in beginner, intermediate and championship categories. As such there is a real buzz about the event as students who have been rowing for less than a year get to compete on the same course as established and prolific crews.”

Growing the sport is a big part of what the BUCS regatta sets out to achieve through competition in beginner, intermediate, and championship categories. “A third of the members of British Rowing are students,” points out Hall-Craggs, “and you can see from the size of the beginner categories how important University rowing is to increase access to the sport.”