Having shared training sessions with the up and coming college at the end of last year, the two teams have come together to form a women’s eight.
The relationship between the two teams, who share the training facilities at Gloucester Boat House, have over the years been strenuous. Matters have however improved over the past year, with both UOG and Hartpury coming together twice at the end of the last semester to form an eight.
It is the university’s first opportunity to put out a eight crew, their biggest crew in the past being a quad – a crew of four. It will take the team some getting used to as an eight presents its own challenges. For some of the UOG ladies it will be the first time experiencing sweep rowing. The team normally sets out sculling crews, the difference between the two types of rowing is the amount of oars involved. In a sculling boat each oarsman or women has two oars and in a sweep boat each rower has one oar.
The university team will also benefit with the opportunity to use both Hartpury’s coaches and their boats. It’s the first time, in the six years that the team has been running, that they joined forces with a rival team.
According to recent information released by ranking institutions nationwide Hartpury is the seventh ranked college in the country. http://www.hartpury.ac.uk/news/2017/12/hartpury-hop-25-places-to-be-named-in-nation-s-top-ten-sporting-schools/
Vice captain for the UOG team Oonagh McNair said: “We will benefit greatly from individualized training and special programs will be written for training to get the most out of what we can do. There will be water and land sessions, we will be doing a lot of erg (rowing machine) training.
“By combining with them it also gives our rowers to shine in front of the Hartpury coaches and some of them could potentially be picked up for a GB development training program.”
Both teams will commence training together this week, with UOG focusing on their next meet at the Avon County Spring Head on February 24th.
