W1 would prefer to describe the race they thought they had rowed…
W1 were chasing Fitz W1 and chased by Emma W2, who were themselves chased by a very fast Jesus W2. Off the start we found ourselves in a double-decker sandwich situation: Jesus closing on Emma, Emma closing on us and us closing on Fitz. Although Emma came close to bumping, W1 put in an almighty effort, pulling away from Emma twice thanks to some beautifully tight corners and an excellent reset call. Emma were bumped by Jesus and conceded on Grassy Corner after steering for a bump on us and missing. After the massive effort evading Emma we dropped back a little and were unable to keep up with Fitz, taking off a little pressure towards the end of the race to save our strength for the next race. We arrived back at the boathouse elated and proud of the determination we had shown as a crew in holding off Emma.
Stop reading here if you don’t like sad endings…
Unfortunately, just as we were about to take a traditional post-race photo, a member of the Jesus bank party cycled up and informed us that we had in fact been bumped by Emma on First Post corner. The crew had not felt or seen this, and it had not been communicated to us or Emma, and hence we kept rowing through the course.
Whilst we are, of course, saddened that we were not awarded the result we felt we had earned, W1 have a lot to be proud about from this race. We put in a huge amount of effort for each other and kept our heads in a stressful situation. We hope to continue this into our next race on Thursday, where we seek our revenge on Emma.
Special commendations go to cox, 2 and 4 (Corin, Martina and Fola), who gave us an excellent Grassy Corner, allowing us to evade a (second?) bump from Emma.