Churchill and Jesus Dominate Queens’ Ergs

TUSHAR DABRAL watches on as Churchill’s men and Jesus’ women take the glory on the ergs.

Cambridge rowing novices queens' ergs Rowing Rowing; fairbairns; jesus; queens'; novices

Cambridge’s novice rowers put on a memorable show this week at Queens’ Ergs. The crowds were keen, the novices were pumped, the delays were minimal and the atmosphere was charged.

All photos Photo is © Pulse Media Development Ltd. 2010 – http://www.pulsemedia.org.uk

Churchill M1 novices dominated the night with a very impressive crew average of 1:29.7. The Jesus novice men’s came a close second with an average of 1:31.0.

On the women’s side, the novices displayed a strong performance with Jesus crushing John’s by coming out on top with 1:50.69 against John’s valiant 1:52.35.

For the first time, the organizers held a senior event comprising of mixed men and women senior crews. Queens’ took the seniors title with 1:35.16 followed extremely closely by Caius with 1:35.47.

There were a few glitches, the most amusing one being the display showing a Magdalene’s women’s crew going backwards and sometimes the display not working at all. But this did not stir the competitors who didn’t lain no way lacked energy and fed off the crowd’s cheers.

The organizers were quick to sort out any unforeseen incidents; one involving a guy chundering and another saw a girl fainting. An ambulance was present and she was back to health after receiving medical attention.

Lower down in the divisions, the M2 title was won by the Selwyn ‘Iceman’ crew with an average time of 1:39.3 and the W2 title taken by LMBC with 2:02.9.

But by far the most impressive performances of the night were the fastest novice individuals, with Ivan Zovich of Jesus pulling a blistering split of 1:23.8.

Elodie Broad took the women’s title with an impressive 1:39.6.

Olympic rowing champ Steve Williams was present at the awards ceremony, having come to Queens’ by chance for another unrelated event that night, and he said he was impressed by Zovich’s mammoth split.

The fastest overall, including the seniors, was Max Richly, from Queens’ who pulled an incredible 1:22.4.

Being one of the largest indoor rowing events in the UK, this year Queens’ Ergs attracted 1120 participants.

In contrast to last year’s cock-ups and choas, the committee did a commendable job of running the event smoothly with a maximum delay of only 20 minute.

Overall, it was a fantastic night with enthusiastic novices entering in one of their first rowing competitions. The crowds went vociferous in cheering the rowers on and the competitors gave a solid performance with some impressive splits.

Bring on Fairbairns and let’s see whether the top novice crews can translate their ergo splits to speed in the water.