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So
it finally arrives! After months of cold winter training
evenings, the weather started to clear and the National League
opens with its first event in sunny (well some of the time)
Cardiff. Execalibre turned out bright and early with
a contingent of 15, and with the aid of Zach
Silverman our race numbers reached 16. After the usual hubbub
of activity preparing for the day, we were up for our first
200m heat, lane 1 against Thames and Worcester, 2 crews who
were expected to be a lot faster than us. However, a decent
first race for Execalibre, with a time of 1.01.97, meant that
we finished only a second behind Worcester: a good start.
In the reps we were again drawn against Worcester, as well
as Secklow and Thames Raging Dragons. A close race ensued,
but unfortunately we finished 4th, again by about a second.
On a positive note, we managed to get our time down to 59.28.
In the 500m we were drawn against Kingston and Cardiff, and
as could have been predicted finished 3rd with a time of 2.19.54,
which was to be our fastest of the day. In our Repechage we
took on BA, Henley Eyot and Secklow. We had a bit of a nightmare
race, and slowed down to 2.28.28, although in fairness most
of the other crews slowed down too. So this put us into the
Plate, where we had a Semi-final against Thames Raging Dragons,
Henley Eyot and Amathus Wasps. Henley Eyot won the semi, but
there was a strong battle for 2nd place between ourselves
and Thames Raging Dragons. After an exciting race and finish,
both crews were separate by less than half a second. However,
unfortunately it was Thames Raging Dragons who came out on
top with 2.24.22 to our 2.24.63. So we were then in the Minor
final of the plate. Again it was us and Thames Raging Dragons
battling it out, this time for 1st place, but again they managed
to narrowly come out on top with a time of 2.22.24 to our
2.23.01. But despite this setback, we still beat the other
2 crews so it was all good in the end! An average start to
the season that may not have matched the last few races of
the previous season, but its only early and there are
still many events to go…
Full
Race Results (pdf file)
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