Imperial's Head of Rowing Stuart Whitelaw recounts a summer of successful competition and exciting times ahead for the boat club.

Stuart Whitelaw

It’s been an enthralling but rather exhausting summer for rowing at Imperial, which culminated in an intense week in Varese, Italy for the Under 23 World Rowing Championships. The racing was contested from 23-27 July, but there was considerable prep beforehand, which I was heavily involved with as one of team GB’s coaches. Since April the Imperial athletes have been training both at the GB rowing lake in Caversham and at the Imperial Putney Boathouse and then solely in Caversham on a residential training camp before flying out to Italy the weekend before the racing. In all, team GB took away medals in four different boat classes - three silvers and one bronze.

Tim Richards, Stuart Whitelaw, Georgia Francis and Wilf Kimberly

Three members of Imperial Boat Club (two of them students) won silver medals: Wilf Kimberley (Life Sciences), Timothy Richards (MBBS) and Georgia Francis. The U23 World Championships are seen as a stepping stone to the senior ranks, so I expect these three to be breaking through soon. If they do, they’ll be joining Donna Etiebet and Zoe Lee from Imperial Boat Club’s high performance squad, who were recently selected for team GB for the Rio 2016 Olympic cycle.

But it’s not just the elite group where things are happening. Just this week I’ve been showing round some new students due to start at Imperial in October. We pair prospective students up with older rowers from the same course who give them tours of all the labs and facilities at Imperial  ̶  which  works really well. We’re keen to attract rowers at all levels –  it’s important to have a diverse community , which also helps ‘widen the pyramid,’ pushing the top athletes even further and pulling in people at the bottom.

A dawn training session at Putney

And we’re already seeing the fruits of that approach. At Henley in early July, two first year students Ollie Hines (Physics) and Tristan Vouilloz (Mechanical Engineering) made it to the semi-finals  ̶  theirs was the top student boat as well. Our novice 8, a crew who only started rowing at the beginning of the year qualified and won a round, which didn’t really believe was possible. It bodes well for the future because we’re at a time when a lot of the good seniors are moving on after many successful years at the club.

With the new season starting at the beginning of September  we’re  going on a cycling camp to the French Alps to train in the mountains while we wait for the Boat House in Putney to be refurbished – a trip kindly  funded by the Boat Club alumni.

President of the Boat Club Sir Richard Sykes inaugurates the John Galley

Some good news for the wider club is that Sir Richard Sykes, a former Rector of Imperial, recently agreed a request by the club captain to become the President of the Boat Club, which is fantastic – he’s always been extremely supportive and was particularly pleased to watch Imperial win the prestigious Prince Albert Cup at Henley Royal last year. He also generously donated a new boat, named the John Galley  Ì¶  a former alumni, Imperial academic and long-term supporter of the club who sadly passed away last year. At the naming ceremony, where Sir Richard poured the customary  Champagne over the hull, there was a gathering of Boat Club alumni who were all reminiscing and sharing stories from their time here.  Interestingly there’s a quite range of experiences from different generations; there’s always been a strong sense of community I think, but our students these days seem to be so driven in their studies.

Anyway if you’re a new to the Boat Club this October – welcome! I’m certain you’ll enjoy your time here. And if you’re an existing member– best of luck in racing this year.

Watch this video of Imperial's Wilf Kimberly and Charles Waite-Roberts preparing for their Lightweight Men's Pairs World Championships campaign