The men's squad was invited to take part in the "2009 Yuxi Fuxian Lake World Top University Rowing Challenge". We accepted the invitation and put an eight together for the Challenge. The Squad for this event was: Fil Ljubicic (Club Captain), Will Lort, Chris Jacklin, Neil Barton, Kirk Tickell, Nathan Gibbs, Mathew Wright, Lawrence Dight, Paul Barton, Jane Reid (Cox), Andy Knee Robinson (Physio/Team Manager), Brian Young (Coach).
The event took place near Kunming in the south of China. Racing was over two days in challenging conditions on a very open lake. The other Western Challenging crews were like ourselves very heavy and shipped a lot of water while the slighter Chinese crews were able to race while taking less water on board. We made the best of a bad lot and finished 6th out of 8 infront of harvard and Cambridge.
The experience for everyone involved was unparralleled. Until our athletes are racing in the Olympics they will not have the same VIP treatment. The Yale coach John Pescatore observed that the prize giving was more impressive than when he was awarded his medal at the Soul Olympics.
The event organisers were at pains to emphasise the aim of the event was to create international links and friendship. In this I believe we were successful. Given fair conditions this year we would have had very competitive races with all crews present and the hope is to send an even stronger crew next year.
On a final note we would like to wish Jane Reid well as she is leaving us to move "up north".
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