Two weeks after being soundly defeated at the Sydney Rowing Club regatta the SUBC U21 Eight bounced back to take out the NSW U21 Eights title at the 2008 NSW Championships.
A group of six relatively inexperienced school leavers stroked by James Goswell (Aust U23 Eight 2007)and backed up by Matt Edstein ( 07 school group) and ably coxed by Will Raven (a student and cox at St Ignatius rowed a race of great maturity.
With a combination of very recent making the crew had been coached not to let the early pace of the well combined school crews upset them. Shore School started fast and held a slender lead of close to a second over SUBC followed by Scotch College of Victoria and then Uni of Qld / Commercial composite. Sydney had a poor start and trailed the field at the 500m.
The second 500 saw SUBC gruadually push through and take a narrow lead at the 1000 metre mark. With lots of races already raced and a lot more to come SUBC covered every move bt Shore and watched carefully as Uni of Qld pushed into a clsoe third in the final 500m. With the line looming the “young” lions of SUBC held on to their narrow lead to record a win be 1.1 seconds over shore.
A really wonderful effort for such a short preparation. The win highlighted some excellent coaching, wonderful application by a group of young rowers who have just joined SUBC. Our photo shows the crew with the Collegues Cup.
The team was: Will Gilbert, Charles Budd, Ryan Edwards, Henry Little, Matt Edstein, Toby Ledgerwood, Ed White, James Goswell and Will Raven (Cox).
