Henley Royal Regatta

Stepping into the boat

This week is Henley; every major rowing club in the world has made the trip to this regatta, some every year.  It's a special event with old traditions, a unique atmosphere and quality racing.

Tomorrow will be my first race of the regatta.  I will be racing in the GB Men's Eight for the Grand Challenge Cup.

Wikipedia Entry -
The Grand Challenge Cup is a rowing competition for men's eights. It is the oldest and most prestigious event at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing clubs.

Our race will be about 3pm and will be against the Australian National Eight.  This will be a big race.  There are no second chances, there are no runners-up; you either win or lose, continue racing or be sent home.  This makes it so much more personal.

In the words of PJ and Duncan - "Let's get ready to rhumble!"

Silver in Munich

For those of you that havn't seen the race, you can view it here on the BBC.

Some rowing trivia for you - when you line up on the start line you can be easily blown by the wind as you try and hold your position.  Two things help you stay in a straight line and make sure that you all start exactly on the line. 1) The stakeboat boy/girl - my brother Ben is hoping to be one at the Olympics and basically consists of hold the end of the boat while lying on your front on a pontoon. 2) Electronic "Clog" system - "Clogs" (they look like a lunch box) are raised from under the water, when you are held by the stakeboat boy/girl.  Its a small perspex box where you position your boat so that if the wind blows across the boat won't move.  The starting system is all electronic, so when the buzzer and lights go, the clog drops (fast) and releases all six eights like greyhounds at a dog track.  If you click on the link to the footage above, you can see a small splash of water at the front of the boat when the buzzer goes, that's the clog retracting back to its watery grave.

All in all, it was a strong weekend of racing for GB Rowing and my crew was very much part of that.  We had four strong races and performed consistently against the rest of the field.  I, and the rest of my crew, don't get up in the morning to collect a silver medal - we are here for one thing, and that thing is to beat people; but what is positive from the weekend is that we tried a few things, we raced honestly and we have clear focus' for the coming weeks.  What was very clear to me was that we were the only eight (bar possibly the French) to have total faith in our own programme.  On the first day we had two races; one a time trial, the other our heat [report here].  With the exception of France, we were the only crew to totally commit to the time trial.  In my eyes that can be for only one reason - that they didn't want to put themselves at a disadvantage during the "real" racing and therefore conserved energy aka they didn't know if they could still perform under extra pressure/fatigue and therefore opted out.  The World Cup races are very important races (they are 3/4 of the main international races we do each year), but they are a means towards the World Championships (which are a means towards our primary goal, the Olympic games).  It's important to use every opportunity on that path, and I feel we used our weekend well.  We raced Sunday afternoon and I was back training 7:30am Monday.

The next World Cup is in Hamburg [Germany] on the 17th-19th June.

Munich Day 2 - Repercharge

Today we raced at 15:06 BST in our repercharge; we won the race, with the Netherlands a close second followed by France and China.  We race at 12:58 BST and you can watch live streaming of the race online at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results or on the Red button on the BBC.

At the moment Man U and Barcelona are 1-1 at Wembley, its good for the Man U fans - only a short tube ride to get home from the game.

Tomorrow I will paddle early in the morning, get the system woken up and then will prepare myself for the final.  Hope everyone is enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend!

Munich Day 1 - TT and Heat

Tom Solesbury looking crisp at bow (far right)



Today has been a busy racing day.  It started with a TT at 1:35pm and a heat at 18:36pm.

We, along with most GB crews, performed strongly in the TT.  This is for two reasons 1) we are a really strong team competing for medals in most events 2) other nations couldn't be bothered.  For some the TT offered a chance to skip a round and go straight to the semi or final; for others, like the men's eights, it didn't really mean a whole lot and was more of a formality.  We took this challenge on and performed well, others backed off and minced down the course.  You say tomato, I say tomato.  We posted the fastest time of any boat.

As evening approached, we prepared for the heat.  We drew Germany, Netherlands and China - all strong crews, particularly Germany who are the reign world champions from 2009 and 2010.  Our race was a mixed bag, showing some great strengths and things to learn from.  We came second to the Germans by two seconds with the Dutch and Chinese a few seconds behind that.  The first place gives the Germans a bye into the A-final; we will race the repercharge tomorrow at 16:06 local time (15:06 BST).  You should be able to view it at worldrowing.com/live-results.

Tom Solesbury was "puckering" today as he realised he had forgotten his racing all-in-one (main piece of clothing).  Thankfully for him I often carry a spare in my bag and so was able to lend him one of mine - might have been a bit tight, but they performed well and qualified for the A-final.

I've been updating my Twitter now and then; I threw a few people off with a tweet that posted while I was on the start line - you can follow me @nrod2012.  Keep an eye out for some mid-race tweets.

Matt Wells has had his ghost writer typing for him again at redexpress2012.com.  Today's post cover's nine ways to execute a time trial.  They left off "No. 10 - The Hogwarts Express" - it consists of the Weasley twins, a couple of brooms each and a stiff yellow snake to use as a boat; then just let the magic happen.

Night before Day

Here is a video I took a few days ago while at Dorney lake, I've uploaded a few other clips to my new YouTube channel ["nrodvlog"]; You should also be able to view it on the left hand side (part-way down).

Today we had two good sessions on the course in Munich.  We will have two races tomorrow; the first at 12:35 BST; the second at 17:35 BST.  Our first race is unusual as it will be a time trial over 1900m.  Readers of previous posts will know that we often do this as part of our National Trials, but I have never had to do it in an international race.  The reason FISA (the World Governing Body) is doing this is to practice the procedure should it be required at events where the weather prevents fair racing in a side by side format.  It should be interesting how it pans out...

The second race will be our heat.  The heats will be seeded from the time trial and the winners will go straight to the A-final.  Places 2-6 will have to race again in the repercharge (Sat).

Both races can be watched live at here on the World Rowing website.  I don't think there will be a live video feed until the finals on Sunday.

I'm aware my posts have become slightly sterile and will look to juice them up a bit where possible!  Comments and suggestions welcome.