Last week 8 Newcastle athletes travelled to Zagreb, Croatia for the 4th European University Championships. While still in its early years, EUSA keeps growing in size and this year the regatta was held at the excellent venue in Zagreb. With athletes returning from Beijing to compete and many countries using the event as a warm up for FISU, the standard of competition was high, with all the Championship records being broken by the completion of the regatta.

The Newcastle double of Alice Leake and Stephanie Barnett produced an excellent display in the final having progressed through from the rep. This double produced their best race of the year to collect the bronze medal. The women’s quad of Leake, Barnett, Jones and Johnson narrowly missed out on a medal after finishing 4th in a race where the eventual winners from Germany were granted a final spot after previously withdrawing. The mens quad of Wilkojc, O’ Reilly, Cupit and Hilder finished 5th in the final, in a race that was eventually won by the Italians in a close finish with the Germans. In 2009 the 5th European University Championships will be held in Poland and the club will look to qualify boats for this regatta at the BUCS regatta in May.

pict0046- video of womens 4x final

We would like to welcome all new members who are looking to join Newcastle University Boat Club at the start of the next academic year. Now A-level results have been released hopefully you will know which universities you are able to attend.

Newcastle University Boat Club has established itself as the most successful university club over the last 4 years. It has produced World Champions and Olympic medalists as well as recording excellent victories at Henley Royal Regatta, BUSA, Marlow, World University Championships and EUSA. The club offers an excellent Novice programme which in the past has proven to be very popular and a lot of fun for all those involved. NUBC also has an excellent social programme that runs alongside the rowing and this includes the Jim London memorial dinner, Head of the River Dinner, Henley BBQ, Summer Garden Party and many other events in Newcastle.

NUBC will have a stand at the Freshers Fair in Claremont Sports Hall during the week of the 22nd September. Please come along and introduce yourself to current members of the club and find out more information on how to get involved at NUBC. This is an excellent chance for those wishing to join the novice rowing programme to find out about training times and meet other members who will be in your squads.

If you are interested in joining the clubs senior rowing programmes in 2008-2009 having already rowed previously, please do not hesitate to email a committee member from our website and they will let you know in greater detail how you can become part of NUBC.

We hope you enjoy your summer and we look forward to seeing many new faces at the start of next year.

Newcastle University Boat Club wishes to congratulate Alistair Heathcote on winning his Olympic silver medal at the Shunyi Rowing Lake in Beijing. Alistair was part of the Great Britain men’s 8+ which won silver in the final last weekend, beating former Olympic Champions America and just being pipped to the line by Canada. This was a very impressive performance by the mens 8 and they were part of Great Britains best Olympic Rowing Performance since 1908.

Alistair Heathcote joined NUBC in 1996 and spent three years at the club before spending time at Oxford Brookes and then the army rowing club while serving in the Blues and Royals regiment.

Last weekend saw the crews named for the 2008 World Universities Regatta to be held in Belgrade at the start of September. After a rigorous selection process and seat racing at Caversham, 3 current Newcastle University athletes were selected to represent Great Britain. Newcastle University has had success in this event before, at the 2006 World University Championships the Newcastle University double of George Laughton and Henry Pelly won gold.

Mason Durant and Fred Gill were selected to compete in the mens pair at the regatta after completing the selection process and fulfilling the selection criteria. This has been a very successful combination this year after achieving excellent results at GB trials and winning BUSA gold.

Charles d’Oncieu returned to Switzerland after Henley Royal Regatta to trial in different combinations for the Swiss Boats. After several weeks of testing Charles has been selected to compete in the mens pair at the World University Championships.

Newcastle University alumni George Laughton, Richard Francis and Stephen Feeney have also been selected to compete at the World University games. While these athletes left Newcastle last year they are still able to compete due to the regatta being held every 2 years. George Laughton has been selected for the mens HWT 4-, Richard Francis will be the stroke of the mens 8+ and Stephen Feeney after returning from the Olympic training camps will compete in the Lightweight 4-.

Newcastle University wishes all 6 athletes the best of luck out in Belgrade.

Murray Wilkojc triumphed at the Home Countries Regatta being held in Cardiff Bay last weekend. Murray who has just completed his first year with Newcastle University Boat club was selected for the Scottish team after good results throughout the year at BUSA, Henley and the National Championships. Murray fresh from victory in the Prince Albert at Henley Royal Regatta formed part of a Scottish junior team and himself was selected for the 4-, 4+, 2-.

In the mens junior 4-, Murray formed part of a Latymer, George Watson’s and Newcastle composite that was representing Scotland. This crew succesfully beat off the other competition to claim gold in this event. Murray’s weekend got alot better recording victories in the 4+ and the 2-. Murray was part of a very dominant junior Scottish team who won the competition finishing three points ahead of Wales in the medal tables. This helped the Scottish team as a whole finish second in the 2008 Home Countries Regatta.