The Oxford University Lightweight Rowing Club is looking for oarsmen and coxes to race and beat Cambridge in the Men's Lightweight Boat Race at Henley in March 2009.
The club will also be running the reserve boat, Nephthys, in 2009, although they will race unopposed at the Henley Boat Races as Cambridge refuse to field a Granta crew. Nephthys will however have the opportunity to race at several other races throughout the season alongside the Blue Boat.
If you are interested in finding out about what it takes to be involved in a program that trains and races at an elite level, there will be a meeting at 7.15pm on Tuesday of 6th week (27th May) in the Oscar Wilde Room at Magdalen College to give people an idea of what trialling involves and what training they need to do over the summer if they wish to make a competitive bid for a seat in next year’s boats.
Following this, there will be opportunities to attend erg-based training sessions, and to come down to our training base in Wallingford to get out on the water.
The only initial requirements are:
- Rowers:
- at least a year's rowing experience
- an eagerness to learn, improve, and commit to a demanding training program
- the ability to weigh <72.5kg on race day next March while at full strength. This usually equates to weighing <85kg now and <80kg in September.
- Coxes:
- you must consider yourself capable of coxing at least your college 1st VIII
- an eagerness to learn, improve and commit to the same demanding training program as the rowers themselves (although you don't have to get sweaty!)
- the ability to weigh 55kg on race day next March
A surprisingly wide range of people with different backgrounds meet these criteria. To give an example of 3 members of this years squad:
Lewis Roberts, 2 in Nephthys, is a second year Physicist, and came from one year of rowing at Queens.
Bodo Schulenburg, 6 in the Blue Boat, is 1st year PhD student in virology. He has had over 20 years of rowing experience, including international selection for Germany as a lightweight sculler.
Tom Harvey, 5 in the Blue Boat, a 3rd year PPE undergraduate, started rowing in 2006 at Keble and rowed in Nephthys in 2007.
If you are interested in trialling next year, please send me an e-mail (president-elect [at] oulrc [dot] org) with as much about your rowing history/test scores etc. as you can.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. I would also encourage you to speak to members of your colleges who have trialled and get their view on what it is like.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Benjamin Harrop-Griffiths
President-elect, OULRC