Last weekend saw over 180 racers and countless supporters from across the country descend on Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy for the biggest event in the student windsurfing calendar, the BUCS National Championships.
Exeter was there in force, with ten individual competitors, a strong crew for the team racing and a fantastic bunch of eager supporters to cheer them all on from the shore. After arriving on Friday evening and setting up our little citadel of tents, you would be forgiven for assuming that, like any other respectable University sports team competing at a national level, we set about carbo loading and getting an early night. You would be wrong. Instead we headed out to a bar in Weymouth for registration and a rather large night out!
After a night of extensive inter and intra club bonding, we crawled out of our tents and headed to the sailing academy for the first day of racing. First up was the advanced racing, in which we had Kieran Martin, Dan Lytton and current vice-captain Jo Wright representing Exeter. Everyone did fantastically well, with Kieran’s extensive experience paying dividends, winning every race and thus being crowned BUCS Champion 2015. Jo Wright also pulled it out of the bag for the ladies with an amazing effort, finishing just behind the former world championship winner in 5th overall, managing to secure Exeter a silver medal in the Ladies advanced class. Seasoned competitor Dan Lytton also raced extremely well, fighting his way through to 8th overall.
Next up were the intermediates, with current Windsurf Captain George Glennie and next year’s Captain Sam Chapman competing for the men, whilst Emily Wheeler and next year’s Vice-Captain Annie Shuttleworth competed for the ladies title. With a crowded fleet and fierce competition rounding the marks, Exeter again managed success, with Emily finishing in 9th overall, bagging herself a silver medal in the ladies class. With the others all finishing extremely highly too, in what was the biggest fleet of the weekend: Annie 15th (5th female), Sam 19th and George 21st.
High on our various victories, it was back to the campsite where we toga’d up and headed to a surreal pre-drinks in a local village hall. Think year 6 disco except that it’s BYOB and the teachers have all abandoned ship! Those of us left standing after the debauchery of the village hall headed into Weymouth to carry on the night.
Sunday morning was near apocalyptic; attempting to pack away wet, muddy tents on fairly severe hangovers was no fun at all, but then it was back to the Academy for a big breakfast and the second day of the competition, which would see both the team racing and the beginners taking to the water. The beginner fleet was out first, with less experience, but every bit as much competitive spirit as the other classes! Amy Hough, Kate Farmer and Charlotte Robins represented Exeter and they all did remarkably well, using their recently acquired windsurfing skills to pick a path through the field. The star of this class though was our very own Kate Farmer, who fought her way through all of her heats into a highly competitive final, eventually finishing 8th overall and 1st female thus winning Exeter another gold medal! Kate also won herself a very fetching hoody, which to our knowledge, she hasn’t taken off since!
Finally, it was time for the team racing, where the best three racers from each university compete in a relay style race. Jo Wright and Dan Lytton were representing Exeter again. Stiff competition and challenging conditions made for a tough race and unfortunately we didn’t quite manage to secure a podium finish, but our fifth place overall was still a huge achievement.
Two golds and two silver medals, with podium positions at every level of individual racing: We came, got fairly annihilated and discovered that hangovers needn't be a hindrance to significant sporting success at a national level! With enormous thanks to the Student Windsurfing Association, BUCS, Liquid Motion and the Exeter Athletics Union and of course everyone who came down at the weekend, we can’t wait to see what next year brings for the club!
