Three current Oxford students competed at the opening World
Cup Regatta at Poznan, the first chance that those boats heading
to the Olympics in August had to test their speed against serious
competition. For the British squad, it was also a chance to see whether the
reshuffles brought in by Jürgen Grobler had worked. In the
absence of the top British coxless pair due to illness,
Wolfson’s Peter Reed and Christ Church’s David
Livingston raced creditably as their replacements, finishing
fifth in the B final. Christ Church’s other Olympic hopeful, Robin
Bourne-Taylor, would have been more disappointed with the fifth
place achieved by the VIII in the final, seen as a set back
compared to the bronze medal achieved at the World Championships
in Milan last year. This result means that yet more reshuffles are possible in the
VIII, especially with the strong performance of former Keble
student Ed Coode. Coode, previously dropped from the VIII after a
poor showing at GB trials, raced to a gold medal in the coxless
four after substituting for the injured Olympian James Cracknell.ARCHIVE: 2nd week TT 2004
Olympic Effort
