TSS take Bronze at Basel Head 2021

Two TSS women's eights traveled to Switzerland this weekend to compete in the 11th edition of the Mirabaud Basel Head. All crews race twice; a 350m sprint race in the morning and a 6.4km time trial in the afternoon where crews race halfway up against the stream and then spin the boat 180 degrees as fast as possible before heading back down. With the same line being used as the finish of the sprint and the start and finish of the time trial, there's a unique atmosphere for a head race with all of the spectators congregated in one area.

In the 350m sprint race, TSS A finished in 6th place and TSS B in 17th. With more crews competing in the time trial, both crews stepped up for the second race of the day where the crews finished 3rd and 13th respectively, with the A crew picking up 3rd place and some prize money behind a crew from ASR Nereus, containing mostly Dutch Olympians and Senior Team and a 'European Great 8' featuring four Tokyo Olympic Champions and Vicky Thornley from GB. The first 8s time would also have placed them second in the junior men's event - a really outstanding performance which also saw them defeat the Norwegian national team.

The second 8 was made up predominantly of new joiners to the senior squad this year, several of whom are doing a post school gap year and having their first taste of an International Race. They had a really steep curve of improvement in the build up and undoubtedly did their best performance in the 6.4 km TT, on a competitive level with some of the top European clubs and universities and significantly further ahead of where the TSS second 8 was pre covid.

Both coxes did a good job with the steering on a tricky course, first time navigating the Tideway inshore zone has paid off in a race held elsewhere!

Results can be found here:
https://baselhead.org/wp-content/uploads/Mirabaud-BaselHead-Classic-Results-2021-1.pdf
https://baselhead.org/wp-content/uploads/Mirabaud-BaselHead-Sprint-Results-2021-1.pdf