Winter League 1 marks the first race of 2023 for many, with Cantabs crews racing well across all categories, putting themselves in a good position to take home some prizes after the subsequent monthly legs in February and March.
Racing proved challenging, with strong gusts meaning for uneven conditions across the divisions, with those racing later in the day enjoying slightly more favourable conditions which should make the results from future legs less easy to predict.
The Cantabs Senior Men fielded the fastest crew of the day, narrowly edging out neighbours Cambridge 99 to create some excitement for future racing after 2022's Winter League saw the crews separated by less than a second.
The Senior Women didn't field a top 8+ for this year's Winter League; however, a 2nd 8+ was the fastest Women's Club A 8+ of the day, beating the 1st 8+ from Cambridge 99 and only a few seconds behind the top 8+ from City of Cambridge. A Cantabs 4th 8+ raced hard to finish as the fastest Women's Club B 8+ crew, with the Intermediate Women not far behind in the same event.
The juniors made a good start to 2023, with the junior women doing a 1-2 in the JW8+, with the Performance Girls leading the way over the Hills Road girls' 1st 8+, who were comfortably ahead of neighbours Rob Roy. The Hills Road boys were the only junior boys' 4+, but their time made them the fastest M4+ overall.
The Progression Squad currently lead the Women's MasDE 8+ event, with many other Cantabs crews finishing 'in the mix' in all boat types, meaning that it is all still to play for in Leg 2.
Full results can be found here.