Lightweights In The Lurch

Cancelled flights at Luton airport have forced the Cambridge Lightweight rowers to abandon their crucial winter training camp in France.

The Lightweights (CULRC) were scheduled to join squads from Jesus and Downing at the Lac de Soustons near Bordeaux on Tuesday.

But the travel chaos at Luton airport saw their flights cancelled, leaving the squad to train in icy Cambridge on the Cam.

Meanwhile their £30,000 Empacher boat is sitting un-used on a trailer in Soustons while the the Lightweights resort to using boats borrowed from the Jesus boat house.

The season had begun well for CULRC, finishing just 15 seconds behind the heavyweight Blues’ matched boats at the Fairbairn Cup in early December.

However missing their warm weather camp will come as a massive blow to the squad as they prepare to defend last year’s victory against Oxford at Henley on Sunday 28th March.

The Lightweight’s performance director Neil West, who was already in France when the squad’s flights were cancelled and is helping out with Jesus’s coaching, shrugged off the disappointment of cancelling the camp.

He told The Tab: “The training that a big lake like this offers is obviously great for the squad so we’d prefer if they were here, but there’s plenty the crews can do on the Cam”.

The two Lightweights crews race during Trial VIIIs at Henley