By Jessica Dunham
The past few months have been busy for the senior rowers of Wolfson College Boat Club. After a greatly successful bumps campaign in Summer VIIIs, the wolves kept their noses to the ground and blades to the water through the (sometimes) sunny weather of another English summer. The women were the first to represent WCBC outside of Oxford this summer, sending two crews to Reading Town Regatta in late June, with the men then entering multiple crews in to Kingston Amateur Regatta two weeks after. All crews performed admirably, but none came away with pots nor points…. yet. Henley Town and Visitors Regatta was to change that, when the Wolfson women’s coxed four smashed through the competition in the three-lane, side by side, knockout regatta to take an overall win (and bring home some highly-coveted silverware).
Left: Winners of Henley T&V W.IM3 4+ (stroke) Sophie Diarra, (3) Georgie Bowyer, (2) Jessica Dunham, (bow) Bronwen Hudson, (cox) Sophie Schauman. Right: The sweet taste of victory (left to right) Bronwen Hudson, Jessica Dunham, Georgie Bowyer. (Photo Credits: Laura Depner and Bronwen Hudson)
Meanwhile, over the course of the same weekend, the groundbreaking women’s coastal coxed quad was on its way south to Dorset for the first ever British Offshore Rowing Championships. Never before had Britain hosted such an event: a full 4km to 6km race (heats versus finals) with a beach start and finish, requiring the rental of a special coastal boat. But our wolves were up to the challenge, even transporting their sculling blades by bus, train, and taxi, all the way down to their final destination of Sandybanks Beach, where they attended an additional set of training courses the day before the race was to begin. It was worth it in the end: one of the only college crews to enter, they still came 5th out of 6 women’s coxed quads overall (of all levels), and were crowned with the prestige of partaking in an inaugural international-level event.
Left: Practice and preparation surveying the Offshore boat the day before the race (left to right) Sofia Hauck, Natasha Bowyer, Stef Zekoll. Right: The full Offshore crew (left to right) Sofia Hauck, Stef Zekoll, (cox) Daina Šadurska, Natasha Bowyer, Sharlayne Waller. (Photo Credits: Daina Šadurska and Natasha Bowyer/Adrian Mathers)
Wolfson’s next entries of the summer were to be at Maidenhead Regatta in Berkshire, where five competitive sculling crews (a coxed quad, two single sculls, and two double sculls) took to the water meaning serious business. Four of the five entered crews made the finals, with three ultimately coming away victorious as overall winners in their divisions (see summary below for full crew details).
Back on our home stretch of river, Oxford City Royal Regatta and the Oxford City Sprint were waiting, and WCBC was ready. Twelve entries heralded the wolves’ mighty presence for the two days of side-by-side racing, but only two came home with the win and the silverware: our lightning-quick senior men’s sprint 8+ and the unyielding senior women’s coxed quad.
Left: Winners of the IM3.8+ Oxford City Sprint (left to right) Josh Combs, Sabin Sulzer, Nawamin Pinpathomrat, Chris Vaas, Lucian Purvis, Christian Cöster, Jasper Barth, Sofia Hauck, and Phil Schäfer. Right: Oxford City Royal Regatta NOV.4+ crew (left to right) Rik van der Veen, Sabin Sulzer, Nawamin Pinpathomrat, Andrew Balin, (cox) Gwilym Jones. (Photo Credits: Nawamin Pinpathomrat)
The next month would bring the Isis Sculls to Oxford, and with it, numerous medals and pennants for our fabulous small boats competitors. Five categories were entered for the 1850 meter Head Race, with Stef Zekoll taking second in the Intermediate Single Scull category, and wins being taken in the Women’s Novice Single (W.Nov.1x), Men’s Intermediate Double (IM3.2x), and of course, the now-club-favored Coxed Quad (W.IM3.4x) events. Small boats would again finish out the summer season with a mixed-double, double entry into Milton Keynes RC Regatta.
Wolfson shows off on its own home turf at the 2017 Isis Sculls, bringing home wins in 3 of its 5 entered categories. Picture above (left to right) are winners of the IM3.2x category, Chris Vaas and Phil Schäfer, winner of the W.NOV.1x category, Sophie Schauman, and cox of the winning W.IM3.4x+, Allison Bryan. (Photo Credits: Chris Vaas)
In addition to club activities, two of our number, past and current presidents Jessica Dunham and Laura Depner, joined in with the Oxford University Women’s Development Squad this summer, racing alongside members of six other colleges to represent Oxford in the 30th annual Henley Women’s Regatta in June, and ultimately making it to the quarter-finals on the Saturday of racing. Laura is now trialling full-time with the OUWBC squad along with fellow WCBC members Abigail Killen, Sophie Schauman, and Rachel Anderson. Trialling with the lightweight women this year are Ellie Watts (President, OUWLRC) and Jill Betts (Assistant Coach, OUWLRC), and for the open-weight men (OUBC), Christian Cöster and Josh Combs. We wish all of our triallists the best of luck in the coming months!
SUMMARY OF EVENTS RACED SUMMER 2017
Reading Town Regatta 24 June 2017
o W.NOV.2x Laura Depner and Stefanie Zekoll
o W.IM3.8+ (cox) Laura Depner, Georgie Bowyer, Philippa Hammond, Stefanie Zekoll, Bronwen Hudson, Sofia Hauck, Verena Wiedemann, Sophie Diarra, Sophi Schauman
Kingston Amateur Regatta 08 July 2017
o IM3 4+ (cox) Allison Bryan, Jasper Barth, Keir Bowater, Kevin Schlegel, Chris Vaas
o W.NOV2x Laura Depner and Stefanie Zekoll
o NOV 4+ (cox) Sophie Schauman, Bill Mulligan, Klaus Weichinger, Sabin Sulzer, Leo Wossnig
o IM3.1x Kevin Schlegel
Henley Town and Visitors 29 July 2017
o W.IM3.4+ [WON] (cox) Sophie Schauman, Sophie Diarra, Jessica Dunham, Bronwen Hudson, Georgie Bowyer
o W.NOV.1x Laura Depner
o IM3.1x Kevin Schlegel
o Mx.IM3.2x Sophie Schauman and Kevin Schlegel
British Rowing Offshore Championships 30 July 2017
o WC4x+ (cox) Daina Šadurska, Sofia Hauck, Stefanie Zekoll, Sharlayne Waller, Natasha Bowyer
Maidenhead Regatta 05 August 2017
o W.NOV.4x+ [WON] (cox) Jessica Buck, Jill Betts, Laura Depner, Abigail Killen, Stefanie Zekoll
o IM3.1x [WON] Phil Schäfer
o NOV.2x [WON] Laura Depner and Phil Schäfer
o Mx.IM3.2x [FINALS] Kevin Schlegel and Sophie Schauman
o IM3.1x Kevin Schlegel
Oxford City Royal Regatta 19 August 2017
o NOV.4+ (cox) Gwilym Jones, Andrew Balin, Rik van der Veen, Sabin Sulzer, Nawamin Pinpathomrat
o IM2.4+ (cox) Kirstin Anderson, Lucian Purvis, Chris Vaas, Philipp Becker, Jasper Barth
o W.IM3.4+ [FINALS] (cox) Sophie Schauman, Sofia Hauck, Estelle Beguin, Kirstin Anderson, Daina Šadurska
o Mx.IM3.2x Depner and Schafer
o Mx.NOV.2x Schlegel and Schauman
o IM3.1x Phil Schäfer
o NOV.1x Kevin Schlegel
Oxford City Sprint 20 August 2017
o W.IM3.4x+ [WON] (cox) Anna Corderoy, Jill Betts, Laura Depner, Abigail Killen, Hannah Patel
o IM3.8+ [WON] (cox) Sofia Hauck, Lucian Purvis, Chris Vaas, Christian Cöster, Josh Combs, Sabin Sulzer, Nawamin Pinpathomrat
o NOV.1x Kevin Schlegel
o IM3.1x Phil Schäfer
o Mx.NOV.2x Kevin Schlegel and Sophie Schauman
Isis Sculls 16 September 2017
o W.IM3.4x+ [WON] (cox) Allison Bryan, Stefanie Zekoll, Sharlayne Waller, Daina Šadurska, Sophie Schauman
o W.NOV.1x [WON] Sophie Schauman
o IM3.2x [WON] Phil Schäfer and Chris Vaas
o W.IM3.1x [Second] Stefanie Zekoll
o IM3.1x Phil Schäfer
Milton Keynes RC Regatta 23 September 2017
o NOV.2x Sophie Schauman and Kevin Schlegel
o Mx.NOV.2x Sophie Schauman and Kevin Schlegel