 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2018) |
The Welsh Boat Race, [1] also known as the Welsh University Boat Race and The Welsh Varsity Boat Race, is an annual rowing race in Wales between the Swansea University Rowing Club and the Cardiff University Rowing Club, rowed between competing eights each spring since 2006 on the River Tawe or River Taff in South Wales.
The Welsh Boat Race started in 2006. with just a senior men's and women's event and as popularity grew for the event and particularly the Swansea University Rowing Club grew in numbers (having been recently reinstated), a Novice event was added for both men and women in their first year of rowing. [2]
The race was held on a Wednesday, to complement the Welsh Varsity event and continued this way until 2009. It was then moved to a weekend date to enable more people to attend.
The 2010 Welsh Boat Race was held on the River Tawe, in Swansea on Saturday 24 April. The aim was to alternate the venue between the two university rivers, but with superior facilities in Cardiff, it was the venue of choice for 4 years. It was again held on the River Tawe, Swansea, in 2015 [3] and 2016, the event returning to the River Taff, Cardiff in 2017.
For the first time, in 2017 Swansea won the overall series of Welsh Varsity Boat Races. This feat was repeated in 2024.
The 2020 and 2021 Welsh Varsity Boat Races were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Men's race
| Women's race
| Men's novices race
| Women's novices race
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Race reports: 2007, 2009 [usurped] 2010
The Cardiff University RC have been established for some years. As such they have a solid club structure and boating facilities and have claimed the majority of the wins. Swansea University RC was reformed in 2004, and since then, they have claimed 11 Senior Men's wins in 2009, 2010, 2014-2024 (no races in 2020 and 2021 due to pandemic), 5 Novice men's wins in 2012, 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2024 as well as for the first time a win by the Women in the Novice category in 2017. The Swansea Novice Women doubled their wins in 2024. Since Swansea University Rowing Club have been receiving comparable funding the results have started to even out with the 2024 results being the 9th consecutive win for the SURC senior men. Since 2016, there has been a mixed alumni race held over a shorter distance and Cardiff University have won 2 races so far and Swansea University won the alumni race for the first time on home water in 2021 repeating the win in 2024. Cardiff's Senior Women still remain unbeaten in this event as of 2024.
The course was rowed on the lower reaches of the River Taff from south of the Railway Arches bridge to Cardiff Bay over approximately 2 kilometres. In 2010 the venue changed to the River Tawe's slightly straighter course of again approximately 2 km from the beginning of the straight below White Rock near the old Hafod Copperworks to the Sail Bridge, returning in 2015, [3] 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024. After 2010 (with the exception of 2015/16) it returned to the River Taff. The course length is restricted due to the available rivers in the South Wales region.
The current trend is to now host the Boat Race in the city where all the Varsity matches are taking place a couple of weekends before Varsity Wednesday. Rowers can also compete in the shorter distance regatta season.
The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the University Boat Race and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.
Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852. In the 2018–19 school year, there were 2,340 male and 7,294 female collegiate rowers in Divisions I, II and III, according to the NCAA. The sport has grown since the first NCAA statistics were compiled for the 1981–82 school year, which reflected 2,053 male and 1,187 female collegiate rowers in the three divisions. Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non-competing novices.
University rowing in the United Kingdom began when it was introduced to Oxford in the late 18th century. The first known race at a university took place at Oxford in 1815 between Brasenose and Jesus and the first inter-university boat race, between Oxford and Cambridge, was rowed on 10 June 1829.
The Henley Boat Races were a series of annual rowing races between various crews representing the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
Newnham College Boat Club is the rowing club for members of Newnham College, Cambridge. The club has a year-round senior squad and invites all members of the college to learn to row by joining the novice squads during Michaelmas or Easter terms.
The Welsh Varsity is an annual sporting event contested by Cardiff University and Swansea University, usually in early April. The sports contested include rugby union, hockey, cricket, squash, badminton, lacrosse, rowing, golf, basketball, football, American football, ultimate frisbee, netball, volleyball, fencing and an array of other sports. Profits go to charity. The event is held over the course of a week, with some sports competing over a weekend due to the nature of the sport. The majority of the games are held on the Wednesday afternoon, with the centrepiece rugby union match between the two sides held in the evening and often attended by in excess of 18,000 supporters.
Cambridge '99 Rowing Club, generally referred to as 'Nines', is based on Kimberley Road in the historic City of Cambridge, UK.
The Boat Race of the North is an annual rowing event between the boat clubs of Durham and Newcastle universities in England. The event is usually staged on the River Tyne in Newcastle, although the 2018 race was held on the River Wear in Durham.
Durham University Boat Club (DUBC) is the rowing club of Durham University. In recent years, DUBC has cemented itself as one of the strongest university boat clubs in Great Britain. Under the leadership of former British Olympian Wade Hall-Craggs, DUBC notably won the BUCS Victor Ludorum for ten consecutive years (2004-2013), and has produced a number of athletes that have competed internationally at European and World Championship level.
University of Nottingham Boat Club (UoNBC) is the rowing club of the University of Nottingham based in the UK on the River Trent. Founded in 1892, the club has over 120 current active members, equally split between men’s, women’s and novice squads. The club is recognisable by its yellow blades and its green and yellow racing kit.
Newcastle University Boat Club (NUBC) is the rowing club of Newcastle University, UK. Established in March 1911 as the boat club for Armstrong College, it celebrated its centenary in 2011, when was also appointed High Performance Programme for heavyweight men and women by British Rowing. In the past 20 years current students and alumni won 60 international vests for GB.
WBR may refer to:
Llandaff Rowing Club is a sport rowing club based on the River Taff in Llandaff, a district in the city of Cardiff, Wales. The club was founded in 1946 and is affiliated to the Welsh Amateur Rowing Association and to British Rowing.
Sport in Cardiff is dictated by, amongst other things, its position as the capital city of Wales, meaning that national home sporting fixtures are nearly always played in the city. All of Wales' multi-sports agencies and many of the country's sports governing bodies have their headquarters in Cardiff and the city's many top-quality venues have attracted world-famous sport events, sometimes unrelated to Cardiff or to Wales.
The Swansea University Rowing Club (SURC) is the rowing club of Swansea University, Wales, and is situated on the west bank of the River Tawe in Swansea. It is unknown when the club was founded, but was re-founded in 2004. Rowing with SURC is open to all members of Sport Swansea, who provide a nominal level of funding and insurance for all university clubs.
Gillin Boat Club is the rowing program for St. Joseph's University Rowing and St. Joseph's Prep Rowing. It is situated at the 1,000-meter mark of the Schuylkill River race course in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gillin Boat Club was admitted to the Schuylkill Navy in 2004, by a unanimous vote of the Navy's members.
Lancaster University Boat Club (LUBC) is the rowing club of Lancaster University. The club was founded in 1964 with the inception of the university by Sir Harold Parkinson and is the oldest sports club at the university. The club is based in the old Halton railway station and trains on a 3 km stretch of the River Lune, 3 miles north of Lancaster.
The Tawe Phoenix Boat Club is the alumni rowing club of Swansea University Rowing Club, and currently does not have a permanent boating base. The club was founded in 2010 and aims to support the interests of Swansea University Rowing Club, to enter some races and to meet up socially at various points throughout each year.
The Lightweight Boat Races are a series of annual rowing races between men's and women's lightweight crews representing the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
The May Bumps 2021 were a set of rowing races at Cambridge University scheduled to take place from Wednesday 16 June 2021 to Saturday 19 June 2021. The event was to be run as a bumps race and would have been the 129th set of races in the series of May Bumps which had been held annually in mid-June since 1887. In this edition of the Mays, the women's divisions were due to be raced before the equivalent men's divisions.