Saturday! Race Day!

Today was day one of the Reading Amateur Regatta, you guessed it, in Reading, on the river Thames. We bussed there late morning from Henley with our friends from Clark University. The 1V and 2V were in separate events, sort of equating to a 1V, 2V type of arrangement, although the British system of athlete rating level is very, very different from that in the States. No matter, it seemed we were placed appropriately in our events. The racing here is 2 boats only at a time, side by side, for 1500m, with some slight turns in the course. As we've said before, the ladders are set up such that when you win a race, you progress to the next rung, until only two boats remain, which then race in the final round to decide the winner. The 1V had to win two races to make the final, and the 2V had to win one race to make their final. Both crews raced very well and progressed to the final event. The 2V raced very well and led the first 2/3 of the race by a small margin against a club boat from Oxford, who were able to slowly reel them in and defeat them by a canvas (6'). Fantastic, hard fought racing!! The 1V had a tough opponent in Vesta and fought them tooth and nail for about 1000m, swapping the lead a couple of times, until Vesta was able to push through and take the race by about bow to stern, aka, a length. Fabulous watching our crews battling in such competitive racing, which is what we came here for. They ROCKED! Photos and videos below, and for a bit of historical perspective, many of the trophy's for this race date back into the late 1800's, which is how long they have been running this event. We head to Reading again tomorrow AM for day 2 of races! HoooRAHHHH!

Coach Pat!

2V at the start

2V round 1

2V in action!

1V in action!

Beside the race course...

Gladiators!

Evening in Henley....not during Henley Royal....