Preston 2011 Race Report
So here we were again, that familiar early start before
collecting the boats and making the effort to go and race. Why is
the weather at the weekend never as good as during the week ?
This weekend we're off to Preston for the 4th round
of the BDA National League.
We would be fielding just one crew this time, with many new
members in the crew it would be a tough test to continue our great
success from Nottingham just a couple of weeks earlier.
It was a bit wet on the way there but once we got to Preston it
was dry, though overcast, with a tricky wind which came into it's
own for the 500m races.
Having finally come down slightly from our successes in our home
event in Nottingham, it wsa back to reality in Preston. We only had
one crew this event and there were many changes from the successful
Anaconda crew from Nottingham. Could we maintain our form . . . .
time would tell.
200m
Our 200m heat would be a 2 boat race against Secklow 100, 'the
old enemy'. We were drawn in lane 2 with Secklow in lane 1. Once we
eventually got backed onto the start right against the concrete
wave breaks beside the marina, there is a little faffing on the
start caused by the awkward head wind coming slightly from one side
which causes the front of the boat to swing around if it is held
too long. Eventually we're off, we get an okay start but nothing
outstanding, and lead all the way down the course to eventually
come in with a winning time of 1.00.52s, with Secklow
2nd in 1.02.73s. This would be the closed Secklow were
to get to us all day. We had our group huddle after the race and
came to the conclusion that we had gone back to old ways where our
first race wasn't great and our gear change just wasn't there but
fortunately, this time, we did enough. Did we have enough to handle
tougher opposition ?
Having won our heat we were straight into the 200m semis which
saw us drawn against much tougher opposition, we were drawn in lane
1, against Hurricanes in lane 2 and Henley in lane 3. Did we have
enough for this ?
We had to really pull one out of the bag to go much further, we
got a great start and Ian started calling us for more right from
the start, the gear change was so much better than the heat and
somehow we managed to come home 1st with a time of
57.54s, 3 seconds faster than our heat, Hurricanes were
2nd in 57.64s and Henley were 3rd in 58.18s.
How good it felt to win a photo by a tenth of a second for a
change. Another major final for Anaconda, wow !!.
So into the Major final we went, against Kingston Royals in lane
1, Amathus in lane 2 and ourselves in lane 3. That's an exact
replay of the 500m Major final from Nottingham 2 weeks ago. Lane
choice in the 200m races was not really an issue, we were next to
the marina and there were no waves to speak of.
We got cracking straight from the start and a good start and
good gear change, it was just that Amathus and Kingston were too
strong for us, we eventually came in 3rd with a time of
57.8s, just behind Kingston who finished 2nd in 54.95
and Amathus who won in 53.14s. So it was to be yet another top
three finish for Anaconda, not bad for our first season in the
premier division for many a year. This will help consolidate our
league position and in fact we would be 2nd overall in
the 200m league standings.
500m
Conditions for the 500m races were very different from the 200m
races, they were held in the main docks area which was much less
sheltered than the 200m course. Lane 1 was sheltered by the wall,
lane 2 was a bit lumpy and lane 3 was just plain wild. Just getting
to the start was an experience that involved plenty of bailing on
the way if you were to avoid carrying a ton of extra weight in the
boat in the shape of loads of water.
Having come 3rd in the 200m final, we would be drawn
in lane 2, against Henley in lane 1 and Amathus Bees in lane 3. We
got a good start and Ian started yelling at us right from the off,
we pushed and reached and kicked our way down the course, dealing
with the lumps and bumps that lane 2 threw at us. Right until the
end we were ahead but somehow Henley, with only 16 paddlers, were
able to overhaul us and pip us to the victory by about 2 tenths of
a second. Henley came in 1st with a time of 2.20.22s, we
came 2nd in 2.20.45s and Amathus Bees trailed in
3rd in 2.43.14, what a difference lane 3 makes !!
As we hadn't won our heat we had to go through the reps route,
something we thought we had left behind but not so. In our rep we
were drawn in lane 2 against Amathus Bees again, in lane 1 and
Secklow 100, in lane 3. We cracked off with a good start in trying
conditions, got a good gear change and easily cruised to victory in
a time of 2.23.56s, ahead of Amathus Bees in 2.35.39s and Secklow
100 in 2.42.98s. After the race I did offer I did offer the chair
of Secklow 100 a calendar with which to time their next race, an
offer that was politely refused.
So we were through to the semis, but as we hadn't won our heat
we had a much harder fight on our hands and our tanks were getting
close to empty. We were in the wild lane 3 against Hurricanes in
lane 1 and Amathus in lane 2. My, this was going to be a tough one.
We got to the start and bailed the boat out, we lined up and were
eventually off. Lane 3 was wet and wild and we gave it everything
but we just didn't have enough to overcome the wild conditions. We
eventually finished 3rd with a time of 2.28.37s, behind
Hurricanes in 2nd with a time of 2.18.32s and Amathus in
1st with a time of 2.12.64.
There would be no major final for us this time, not even a minor
final it would be the cup tail race for us this time. Still having
come 3rd in the 200m in the morning, we were still
fighting for 7th - 9th place overall.
In the cup tail race we were drawn in lane 2 as we had the
fastest time of the three teams taking part though lane 1 would
have been a better place to be given it's protected nature for this
event. Crusaders were in lane 1, we were in lane 2 and Kingston
Pretenders were in lane 3. With conditions getting worse and
everyone getting wetter we were pretty much straight out again
after our semi final. It was a bit of a rush straight to the start
given the fast turn around. We got lined up with Crusaders to our
left way over towards the wall and Pretenders over to our right on
the open sea, or so it appeared. We were called to the start and
then we were off, Ian called us in after the start and we gave all
we had all the way down the course, we were neck and neck with
Crusaders, Ian threw in a few extra calls but we just couldn't do
it, Crusaders had us at the finish by just over 1 second. Crusaders
came 1st with a time of 2.25.01s, we were 2nd
in a time of 2.26.04s and Pretenders were 3rd with a
time of 2.46.07s. I hope they had a calendar.
With this 2nd place we had finished 8th
overall in the 500m event, not a bad result at all given that it
was out first season in the premier division and it was only our
3rd 500m event of the season with the 500m races having
been cancelled in London due to the weather.
Click here for
the full set of results from Preston