Cambridge enjoyed a highly successful BUCS Regatta at Holme Pierrepont from 1-4 May 2026, joining thousands of students from across the country and delivering a weekend of excellent performances across women’s and lightweight events, returning from Nottingham with an impressive haul of nine medals. Congratulations to all Cambridge crews on an outstanding weekend of racing.
Women & Lightweight Women
Race report: Gemma King
The Cambridge women’s squad had a busy weekend of racing at BUCS regatta in Nottingham, fielding 19 crews across the four days. The event provided a great opportunity to transition into 2km side-by-side racing and test ourselves against top university crews from across the country. It was also an opportunity for our four development squad crews to experience rowing for CUBC for the first time.
Racing began on Friday with our W Ch 4+ securing a bronze medal, and our two W Ch Lwt 4-s both making the podium, taking 2nd and 3rd place. This strong start to the weekend set the tone for the rest of the regatta.
Saturday saw further success in small boats with a win, 4th and 28th place in the W Int 2- category and a strong silver medal for the W Ch 2-. Our W Ch Lwt 2x gained valuable racing experience in a competitive field, finishing 8th.
On Sunday, we fielded four eights with our W Int 8+s finishing in 3rd, 9th and 19th, and our W Ch 8+ just missing out on a medal to place 4th. Elsewhere, our beginner 4+ and W Ch Lwt 1x both finished 6th in their respective categories.
Racing concluded on Monday with a standout performance in the W Int 4+ where Cambridge crews secured 1st, 29th, 41st and 45th in a huge field. The W Ch 4- also raced against tough opposition to finish 6th.
Across the regatta, Cambridge returned with an impressive haul of 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. Our development squad boats (one W Int 8+, one W Beg 4+ and two W Int 4+ crews) had strong performances across the board, and we are excited to see what many of them can bring to the club in the future.
Overall, the regatta was an encouraging start to the summer racing season for us to build upon in the upcoming weeks and it provided valuable experience of close racing for everyone.
Lightweight Men
Race Report: Josh Moore
The lightweight men’s squad immediately switched focus to BUCS after The Boat Race, entering the eight into the intermediate category. Freddie Challacombe and Josh Moore also entered the pair with Victor Viennot-Bourgin challenging in the single on the Saturday. Victor placed sixth in the time trial in the single and narrowly missed out on a place in the A final in the repechage. After winning the pairs time trial, Freddie and Josh jumped into the eight with the rest of the crew to place third in the time trial in a time of 4:37.2 behind two crews from Oxford Brookes.
Victor then went on to win his B final in the single and Freddie and Josh won the intermediate lightweight pairs overall. Later in the afternoon, we lined up for the A final of the eights. Keen to prove ourselves against top heavyweight crews in our first 2k race as a crew, we got up off the start and led to the 750 mark. All three Brookes crews closed the gap in the third 500 and we eventually finished fourth half a length down on the 3rd placed Brookes crew.
On Sunday, Victor Viennot-Bourgin and Archie Smith joined up with Freddie and Josh from the pair to enter the lightweight championship coxless four. After weighing in, they won the time trial by 18.3 seconds securing the only guaranteed spot in the A final. We went on to win the final by ten seconds and win our second gold medal of the regatta for CUBC’s lightweight men. This was a great way to finish the regatta and gain valuable experience for the squad as we look to Met and then hope to row at Henley Royal Regatta.
