HWR: Thoughts and Feelings
Henley Womens Regatta - what a weekend of up's and downs!
Thank you so much for all the kind words of support and tips about beating nerves following my last blog post. I started the weekend in good spirits and with the wind playing ball I had a superb time trial, even before hearing the results I knew I had smash my race plan and delivered. Not getting updated draw results, TT results or anything like that via twitter or the website was incredibly frustrating. It sounds lazy for an athlete, but in that heat I did not want to do the trek from Leander to the HWR enclosure just to see if I had qualified. But, nevertheless, I had.
The most exciting race of the weekend was most certainly my heat on Friday against Wadham College, where I won by only 1ft. There was lots of opportunity I felt I could have gone through, but my opposition was one tough cookie! I must admit I am still not sure how to race 1500m, as I only did about 4 sprinting strokes at the end (which is where the victory was claimed), but I certainly could have done that earlier! Anyway, it was a great feeling and I gushed congratulations to my rival as gosh - it was so much fun.
The race on Saturday was...er... less fun. To say I had emptied the tank on Friday was an understatement! I knew I was not going to beat Cardiff Uni as she was a favourite to win going into the event, but I wanted to be within 2Ls. I felt strong until I was coming up to half way and I pulled a stroke which felt like the wind got kicked out my sails. I believe I was already 3L down by this point, but my reoccuring hip problem had decided to wiggle it's way into my stroke and those last strokes were pretty painful. I didn't learn much from that race, except that I have an awful start.
BUT.
For my 4th ever side by side race in a single...I'd say I did quite well.
I must also congratulate the might Laura and Natasha from Leander for taking the win in championship pairs - those girls are frightfully strong and I can't wait to see them racing down the course at HRR (as I'm putting money on them qualifying - no pressure!!!)
In other news. I still think the competition structure and event criteria need looking at. In A1x we had the same situation which arose in S1x last year, where the fastest qualifier was almost 10s faster than the second fastest qualifier. From then onward it's a pretty close field. So how does this randomly fast sculler seem to make it past the entry criteria? Winner of BUCS 1x, training with Welsh Start and a GB triallist, I feel sometimes maybe entries should be looked at a little closer - not that it takes away from Siena's amazing performance, but I feel sorry that her only competition came in the form of Oxford Brookes - surely she would have liked some more interesting racing?
I have only looked at A1x in any serious detail. C1x had a seriously big spread of speeds, I hope that over the next few seasons this becomes a bit more clear cut as (hopefully) UK womens club rowing goes from strength to strength.
Would love to hear your thoughts on Henley Womens Regatta and their current competition frame work!
Natalie X
