6th European Universities Rowing Championship 2010, Amsterdam.

Queen’s men’s second eight competed in this year’s European Universities Rowing Championship in Amsterdam. The crew competed in a field of ten crews from six different countries, with Queen’s and University of Nottingham representing Great Britain. 

On the opening day, Queen’s finished third in their heat, after a strong performance from first and second placed Polish (Kazimiers Wielki University of Bydgoszcz) and German (Liebniz University of Hannover) Universities. 

Saturday’s repechage offered Queen’s their final shot at racing in Sunday’s ‘A’ final. The first two finishers received outside lanes for the ‘A’ final. The Queen’s men went out hard, taking the lead in the first 500m. INSA Lyon then found their rhythm and pushed through Queen’s in the next 500m. The Polish crew (Adam Mickiewicz University) and Queen’s then chased INSA Lyon and pushed each other hard in the process. The Polish crew bettered Queen’s attempts in the closing thousand to finish in second, with INSA finishing first. This was disappointing for the Queen’s crew but they relished the opportunity to race the ‘B’ final nonetheless. 

On Sunday, the Queen’s men won the ‘B’ final convincingly, leading from start to finish over Nottingham University who placed second. The crew finished in a time of 5:57.73, earning them 7th place overall.