Sunday - Reading day 2

Woke today to crisp blue skies, a firm breeze, and visions of fast racing.  We trundled up to Reading via bus mid-day today, as racing for us did not begin until 4PM.  Our first scheduled race with the eight against Radcliffe's LW8 was a bye, as Radcliffe scratched.  We first faced Kingston Rowing Club, whom we raced on Saturday.  The eight was behind for the first 1/3 of the race then confidently pulled through Kingston to make the final.  In the final they raced St Pauls, who had a fast start and gained an early 3 seat lead, before WPI began powering back through them.  Then we encountered a blue ball floating in the course which hit most of our starboard oars as it bounced, causing us to lose a few seats in this extremely close race.  In the final 250m WPI was pulling though St Pauls like an angry freight train, but fell short by "a canvas", aka about 3 feet.

The Platinum Fantastico four raced a final only against Galway Rowing Club.  The Galway boat was highly skilled, but our Fantastic four rowed a great race, and fell just short of victory.   They rowed their best race yet, as did the eight.  All in all a fantastic day of highly competitive racing.  The WPI crews raced well, and the Brits took notice.

The women have Monday off and we next practice on Tuesday morning, as we make final preparations for the HWR which begins on Friday.  I may post some sightseeing stuff tomorrow, but otherwise, Blogger man may take a day off!

The eight in the far lane vs Kingston early on

and in the last half, WPI pushes through!

The four duking it out vs Galway RC

The eight's final against St. Paul.  WPI is in the far lane to the right.  If you look carefully you can see the blue ball that our starboards hit with their oars as it bounced down the boat.  It was floating on the race course and slowed our momentum a bit as we were trying to pull through a very strong St Paul's crew.

new volunteer oar carriers!!

Henley RC trailer - our friends at HRC are awesome.