The physical and technical preparation ended with training at Chester and at the the new Eton rowing lake, after which we were given two days rest before flying out to Croatia. Upon arrival at Zagreb airport, the air temperature was a high 34 Celsius. No time was wasted before our first outing, to familiarise ourselves with the surroundings. The course on which we rowed was specially designed for rowing, and the water temperature was about 24 celsius. The higher temperature makes rowing surprisingly different, although after a while you get used to it.
The hotel was very nice and it was essential to have air-conditioning in the hot climate. We took to the water twice a day for the few days leading up to the our first race.
The night before we raced a crew dropped out of the event, leaving 12 remaining. Two races in total, with only the winners of each racing going direct to the final. All of the remaining crews had to race an extra day in the repechages. We had a very encouraging draw and came 1st without much trouble. We also learned that we had a very slow start although a very fast cruising speed. For the next three days we practised our starts and our finishes. Any person who has rowed before will know that this is the best part of training, and the most enjoyable part, especially when you can hold it at rate 48 and still have plenty of time and length.
It was looking promising for the final, but we all knew in the back of our minds that it wasn‘t going to be easy. The six crews - Russia, Germany, France, Great Britain, USA and Croatia all started well and, rather than starting behind, we were in a comfortable 3rd. We held this position until 1250m and then it all went wrong. I think we had done too much work earlier on and now we were going to pay. This was our only race which didn‘t go to plan. We were now drastically losing boat speed and crew cohesion and as quickly as we had gained places, we were losing them. We finished a distant 5th place, losing to crews which we knew we could beat. We had been told that were capable of 3rd place, but nobody in our crew wanted to settle for 3rd and paid the price of trying to strive far to soon. I‘ve learnt a big lesson, I only wish I could have learnt it somewhere else.
Henry Bailhache-Webb - Captain 1999/2000