Can they do it today?
m5 sets unofficial women’s record at Quidi Vidi
“Our goal is to go for the record. That’s always in the back of our heads. We want that record.”
– Katie Wadden
A little less than 12 months ago, as she looked ahead to the 200th anniversary year of the Royal St. John’s Regatta, Katie Wadden, the stroke oar for the m5 crew, made it clear she and her teammates wouldn’t simply be settling for a successful defence of their Regatta women’s championship in 2018.
“Our goal is to go for the record. That’s always in the back of our heads. We want that record,” stated Wadden after she and crewmates Alyssa Devereaux, Amanda Ryan, Amanda Hancock, Jane Brodie and Nancy Beaton, steered by coxswain Dean Hammond, won the 2017 championship dash at Quidi Vidi Lake in a time of just more than five minutes.
That was just a tad over four seconds slower than the women’s course record of 4:56.70 set by OZ-FM in 2003.
On July 24, 2018, at Quidi Vidi, the m5 crew gave a very good indication they could make up that difference — and more — next Wednesday.
In a poke — a one-crew replication of a race in order to establish a time — m5 was clocked at 4:55.
“It’s a dream come true for us,” said Wadden, speaking for a crew that sported huge smiles and shed lots of tears after returning to the shore.
A choked-up Ryan described the commitment and determination that has put her and her crewmates so close to Regatta history.
“We’ve been training really hard every year, but this year, we really wanted to go the extra mile,” said Ryan. “It’s really special tonight to get that time with this team that’s so close and works so hard together.”
Rowing conditions were excellent last Tuesday night at Quidi Vidi, so m5 and all the other registered crews will be hoping for something similar next Wednesday as they take to the pond.
(By the way, defending men’s champion Outer Cover also took a poke July 24 and while they didn’t set an unofficial record, rumour has it they were four or five seconds off the men’s course record of 8:51.29, set by Crosbie Industrial Services in 2007.)
But they will have no influence — other than perhaps through prayers — on the weather and resulting course conditions, the defending women’s champs can count on something come Regatta Day that wasn’t available to them on Tuesday night … a push from other competing crews.
For example, The Cahill Group, which was runner-up to m5 in 2016, is back after a year’s hiatus and already has a Regatta title to its credit this year, having finished first in Placentia last weekend (m5 did not compete in that event).
And interestingly, among the more than 150 Regatta entrants is a regathered OZ-FM team, returning to participate in what will be a once-in-a-lifetime event.
But not all the members of the record-holders are back with the 2018 version of the crew.
Hancock was part of the OZ-FM standard-setters. She said she now has a much better understanding of the significance of the accomplishment, making the possibility of doing it again — this time with m5 — all the more wonderful.
“(2003) was my first championship and I was like “I guess this happens every year’ and it’s been 15 years,” Hancock said Tuesday.
“This is a very special crew and we’ve really worked hard and I feel so proud.”
Tuesday’s poke was not unplanned, but that didn’t lessen the excitement that came with the accomplishment.
“You never really know until you try, and tonight was our first time trying it for real … and we did it,” said Beaton. “We’re really excited and half-shocked, but not, because we put in the work.
“But to actually see the numbers … yeah.”
They’ll be looking to see those numbers again today.