ThunderstruckYear Two • Edition One •

! Dear UBC Rowing Community,

Welcome back to UBC Rowing’s newsletter, Thunderstruck! We’re moving into our newsletter’s second year of existence and we’re looking forward to being back after a great summer away. With a great pre-classes training camp already under our belt, things seem to be shaping up for a busy fall. Today we’ll update you on our ongoings this summer, and introduce the 2013/14 captains. Following editions will aim to keep you up to date with news, upcoming events, as well as individual athlete and team results.

Please pass this along to those who might be interested and subscribe at ubcrowingexec@gmail.com.

Enjoy!

In this Issue:

• Meet our Captains• Looking Back: Where in

the World We’ve Been• Looking Forward• Fall Event Calendar

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Meet our 2013/14 Women’s Captains

Martha Smith Fourth year Physiology Julie Sheppard Fourth year Forestry

UBC's Women's team is back with a vengeance. This year we have 9 returning athletes of the 12 that represented UBC at last year’s CURC's (where UBC was narrowly defeated by UVic). With the addition of several keen recruits and the great talent from last year’s novice program, we've got a force to be reckoned with! The experience that we have while returning to the water this season is vital to our potential success.

Over the summer, the UBC athletes were busy training hard on the water. We had exciting results at both the Canada Summer games and the Royal Canadian Henley. Not only were Zoe Fettig-Winn, Emily Gerson, and Hillary Janssens chosen to represent British Columbia at the Canadian Summer games, they also each won gold in all of the events they competed in.  Julie Sheppard, Martha Smith, Jannelle Mackoff, Jocelyn Plant, and Katherine Enns claimed multiple top 3 finishes at Henley and added 2 more golds to the UBC medal count for the summer.

We are aiming to build on our success from the summer as we move into the school season. Looking forward to CURC’s in November, our focus is on the heavyweight eight, pair, and single and

the lightweight four, double, and single. Of these combinations, the big boats are worth the most points towards the CURC’s championship title. Many of the athletes who will be in these boats have been training at UBC over the summer, with a few new additions this fall. Notably, Lauren Wilkinson, a London 2012 silver medalist in the Canadian women’s eight, will be joining our heavyweight women and will certainly add to the depth of talent we have developed over the past few years. It's going to take a lot of hard work on the water, on the ergs, and in the weight room, but we are confident that this year's team will do everything it takes to get the UBC bow ball across the finish line first!

(b-s) Smith & Sheppard - 2013 Royal Canadian Henley Sr lwt & u23 lwt 2- Gold Medalists

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Meet our 2013/14 Men’s CaptainsEvan Cheng Fifth year Commerce

This year the Thunderbird men’s crew is looking stronger than ever! The men’s team is ready to hit the water with speed after a hard summer of training. This summer, UBC placed athletes on the National team for the U23 World Championships in Austria and on a number of provincial teams for the Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Meanwhile, the rest of the UBC squad was training hard back at the UBC boathouse for the Royal Canadian Henley.

We also have one of the strongest JV teams that we have seen in years. The depth of the program has increased significantly due to the arrival of a number of good recruits and huge leaps in performance from members of last year’s JV and novice crews. The size and depth of the team allows for three competitive eights to challenge each other every morning on the Fraser. This intra-team competition should make for an extremely high level of training over the next 8 weeks leading up to CURC’s. With only two athletes from last year’s victorious Brown Cup Eight having graduated, there are a lot of experienced athletes ready to get back at it. UBC men’s team is ready to bring home the banner!

Robert Gage Fifth year Applied Science

The men’s 2013 Brown Cup Champion 8+ (cox, stroke-bow) Mark, Graeme, Rob, Alex, Max, Evan, Valentine, Ben, & Angus.

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Looking Back: Where in the World We’ve Been

The 131st Royal Canadian Henley Regatta During the second week of August, eleven Thunderbird rowers took to St. Catherine's, Ontario, to represent UBC at the 2013 Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. The week of racing kicked off with many successful heats and semis for the UBC athletes, advancing the T-Birds through to some exciting finals at the end of the week.

The highlight of the week came in the form of a double gold medal performance by Martha Smith and Julie Sheppard. On Friday afternoon, Martha and Julie won their first gold medal in the U23 Lwt Women’s 2-. Ninety minutes later, they successfully defended their title as they once again raced into 1st place in the Sr. Lwt Women’s 2- event.

Impressive racing continued to be performed by the UBC women’s team throughout the week. Katherine Enns placed 3rd in the competitive field of the U23 Open 1x, while Jannelle Mackoff placed 3rd in the U23 Lwt 1x. Later, the two joined forces to earn a 3rd place finish in the U23 Open women’s 2x. Jocelyn Plant, after racing the Sr. Lwt 1x, joined Smith, Sheppard, and Mackoff in a crew that placed 2nd in the Sr. Lwt 4-. Later that day, Andrea Bundon placed 4th in the Sr. Lwt women’s dash. The last race of the regatta for the women was the Sr. Lwt women’s 4x, in which Bundon, Plant, Mackoff, and Sheppard brought home a 3rd place finish. 

The men, bringing a small team of five athletes to Henley Island, also had a successful regatta. In the Sr. Men’s 2-, Marc Addison and Ben Coull claimed a 4th place finish. Marc Bonar and Doug Euper also took 4th place in the final of the Sr. Lwt men’s 2-. A highlight for the men’s team was a 3rd place finish in the Sr. Lwt men’s 1x by Valentin Dunsing, a UBC exchange student from Germany. 

Overall, UBC had a great week of racing and all of the athletes seized the opportunity to showcase their hard earned speed.

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Rowing at the Canada Summer Games This August, 10 UBC rowers competed as members of Team Alberta and Team British Columbia in the 12th quadrennial Canada Summer Games. The Canada Games is a major multi-sporting event that brings together amateur athletes from all over Canada to partake in two weeks of competition in 20 different disciplines. This year, both the rowing and sailing events were hosted at Lac Magog in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Due to the expanse of the lake, the rowers were faced with high winds, challenging conditions, course closures, and racing delays. Nevertheless, the T-Birds helped BC and Alberta lay down multiple medal-winning performances over the four days of racing, deftly representing both UBC and western Canada.

In the first final of the regatta, Maxwell Lattimer led Team BC's lightweight men's 4- to a convincing victory alongside younger brother Aaron Lattimer (2) and Angus Todd (bow). Another Thunderbird, James Kirker (2), represented Alberta in the same race, helping his province win bronze. On the women's side, Hillary Janssens (bow), a Thunderbird with only ten months of rowing experience, was able to thrive despite the worsening course conditions and win the women's 2- event by a conclusive 22 seconds. In his second race of the day, Max (stroke) proved his exceptional talent again as he, along with another lightweight, raced to his second gold medal in the men's heavyweight 2-. Competing for Team Alberta, Jack Dundas (3) earned a bronze medal in the men's 4x while fellow T-Bird Olivia Fischer (3) collected a bronze medal in the women's 4- event. The first day wrapped up with the women's 8+ event. Team BC, whose crew included Zoe Fettig-Winn (stroke), Emily Gerson (2), and Hillary Janssens (bow), dominated over Team Ontario, whose boat included three members of Canada's u23 national team 8+ and its one non-travelling spare. BC established its commanding lead from the first stroke and crossed the line with an open-water advantage. The second day of racing concluded with another exciting victory for BC in the men's 8+ event. The Lattimer brothers (Max [7], and Aaron [2]), joined again by Todd

(bow) and UBC’s varsity coxswain Mark Goudie, were triumphant over Ontario and the other competing provinces. In spite of Ontario's close pursuit of the BC crew through the first thousand meters, Team BC (coached by UBC alumnus Ben Rutledge) stuck to its carefully constructed race plan, gaining seats until a confident lead was established at the 1250 meter mark. Team BC held the lead, achieving another commanding finish.

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An Austrian Summer: The u23 World Championships This summer, four UBC rowers represented Canada at the Under 23 World Championships in Austria. Rowing in the Lightweight Men’s Pair were UBC's Evan Cheng and Maxwell Lattimer. On the heavyweight side, Robert Gage and Alex Janzen formed bow pair of the Coxed Four. For the majority of the summer, the Lightweights were training out of Welland, Ontario under the coaching of Phil Marshall. The heavyweights were based out of the Victoria Training Center, working alongside the Sr. National Team. Robert and Alex expressed that it was beneficial to train with the senior team, noting that the 2012 Olympians exemplified the high standards of international racing.  After two long and demanding months of testing, seat racing, and selection, the entire Canadian team convened in Toronto before flying overseas.  The team completed a week-long training camp in Volkermarkt and then traveled north to the regatta site in Linz, Austria. Though it was hard to tell, the race course in Linz had experienced heavy rains and severe flooding earlier in the summer and, only two months prior to the event, the course had been 30 feet underwater. Both crews raced well in their heats and gained valuable racing experience by qualifying for the A-final. The finals took place four days later and both teams placed fifth overall among a strong field of competitors. All four of the athletes are now back at UBC to study and train. They are working hard with the varsity team in the buildup to the Canadian University Rowing Championships. 

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Fall Event Calendar: Sept - Nov.

Head of the GorgeOctober 26th - 27th

Victoria

JV / Novice Crews

The Canadian University Rowing Championships

November 1st - 3rd, MontrealVarsity Crews

Green Lake & Head of the LakeNovember 2nd - 3rd

Seattle

JV / Novice Crews

The National Rowing Championships (NRC’s)

November 8th - 10th, WellandCrews by Invitation

UBC v. UW October 26 - 27th, Seattle

Varsity Crews

Western Canadian University Rowing Championships October 20th, Burnaby Lake

All Crews

Head of the FraserOctober 12th

The UBC Boathouse

All Crews

Burnaby Lake TTSept. 21st

Varsity Crews

Burnaby Lake 4kTT

October 5th

Varsity Crews