Imperial College Boat Club stormed home to secure overall victory in the Women's Eights Head of the River Race (WEHoRR) on Saturday 9 March.

Beating over 300 other boats, Imperial’s Women’s A Crew covered the 6.8 km course on the River Thames in 18 minutes 16.57 seconds – 16 seconds faster than the crew in second place.

Coach Stuart Whitelaw said: "I'm over the moon about the result. It's an incredible race to take part in, and to come home with a win is just fantastic – though this has not happened by chance. The win is the result of more than six months’ preparation, so all credit to the girls' fantastic effort."

The Imperial Women’s A Crew taking part in the race was a combined student and open crew. Imperial competitors were PhD student Michelle Vezie (Physics), undergraduates Mel Wilson (Medicine) and  Myriam Goudet (Life Sciences) with alumnus Seb Pearce (Mechanical Engineering 2005) serving as cox. 

Others in the boat included Sophie Hoskings who won a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics in the lightweight double sculls category.  

Imperial Women's eight surge ahead. Photography by Nick Ablitt

"The crew included two members of Team GB from last summer's Olympics including Sophie and our own Mel. It was a great experience for our crew to race with world class athletes," Coach Whitelaw said.

"I'm also delighted with the second crews' effort in getting tenth place. This was a student crew, that demonstrated an excellent standard of rowing – truly outstanding," he added.

The victory at WEHoRR, held on the Championship Course between Mortlake and Putney which is also used for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, follows a series of successes for the Imperial College Boat Club bagging them 125 BUCS points and second place overall for rowing in the BUCS league.

The last win for Imperial on the Championship Course was by the men’s crew competing in the Head of the River Race in 2001.

Five male crews from Imperial will be competing in the Head of the River Race on Saturday 23 March from 12.45pm. Imperial’s News site will publish details of their preparations in the coming week.