A lot was at stake when Lund’s rowing crew met their archenemies in Uppsala this weekend: honour, prestige and two university towns’ good reputation. Unfortunately the Lund rowers fell on the finishing tape.
Saturday the 4th of October will be remembered as a dark day for all rowing fanatics in Lund. In the yearly prestige battle between Lund and Uppsala University, Lund University’s rowing crew’s men and women teams were embarrassingly defeated by Uppsala akademiska roddarsällskap (Uppsala Academic Rowing Society), who triumphed at home grounds.
Have competed since 1992
The competition is known as Universitetskapprodden, and was established in 1992 with The Boat Race, a traditional race between Oxford and Camebridge, as a role model. This year’s competition ended with 38-28 to Uppsala and David Lundberg, the chairperson of the Lund University team, explains the bad results by saying that they didn’t have that much time to prepare.
“We put together the teams very late this year, so we only had time to practise once. But we still felt that we wanted to take part in one of the bigger competitions with both a men’s and a women’s boat, so it was neck or nothing,” David Lundberg says.
Non-existent interest
Lund University’s rowing crew is housed in the same place as their sister organisation Malmö rowing crew. David Lundberg says that the lack of knowledge about rowing in Lund makes it difficult for the organisation to recruit new talents.
“Interest in rowing is practically non-existent. People don’t know what it is and those who come here are mostly exchange students who have found us through Google. We have tried to recruit more Swedish people in order to get more continuity, but it’s not working very well,” he says.
“However, now, it looks as if a lot of girls are still going to be here in Lund for the next one which means that we will have almost one full women’s boat, which we have never had before. So, the future looks bright,” he says.
Martin Stigge, rower of the Uppsala team for four years is not surprised by the victory against the rivals in Lund. He describes his team as a ‘hungry gang’.
“We have practised really well, we were raring to go and put a lot into this. We have gathered quite a few new talents for the team, so I think that this is just the beginning of a trend,” Martin Stigge says.
Needs a strategy
Martin Stigge questions if the Lund people will be able to win in the next years’ competitions. To do this he thinks that his rivals need to get ‘a long-term strategy’.
“It seems like the people in Lund only gathers all the rowers they can find, and, unlike us, they are only aiming for this competition. I think they seem a little bit tired,” Martin Stigge says.
When David Lundberg is told that his team are perceived as tired, he is at first surprised.
“Tired?”
Yes, tired
“Those Uppsala people, really. Those rascals. I would say that if Uppsala aims to win next year, they will have to stay in the sauna longer than half an hour, but maybe that’s too much to ask. We won the sauna competition easily if I may say so.”
Can I quote you on that?
“Yes, of course,” David Lundberg says.
Text: Marcus Bornlid
Photo: Lukas J. Herbers
Translation: Mia Söllwander
