Rob Baker
Chief Coach, CUBC Men
From my side, so far, the 2023 Boat Race campaign has been very good. The athletes have shown great commitment and are absolutely invested in what we are trying to achieve. They have thrown themselves into this project 100%.
Unlike last year, we do not have big international oarsmen, and in the grand scheme of things our Blue Boat is relatively small. But it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog.
We have a clear picture of what we need to do over the coming days, and how we are going to do it. The fixture series proved useful. The Blue Boat and Goldie both enjoyed tough racing against quality opponents. The results didn’t always go our way but nevertheless the match racing was highly beneficial. It exposed areas that still needed work and allowed us to make fundamental change and progress.
The challenge now is to make sure the key components are in place and robust under pressure. Everything we have done leads to this point. I’m really looking forward to racing Oxford on March the 26th. I know we’ve got what it takes to win.