About the race

City Sprints is an annual side-by-side 500m race in front of the boathouses, racing from Cutter Ferry footbridge to City of Cambridge Rowing Club.

The invitational regatta takes place on the Sunday before the May Day bank holiday.  This year the 2024 City Sprints will be held on Sunday 5 May.  There will be a bar and spectator viewing area at the finish line.

Prize categories and results

Events will be held for each boat class across Open, Women’s and Mixed categories and in: 8+, 8x+, 4-, 4+, 4x, 4x+, 2-, 2x, 1x.

There will also be a special category for the overall fastest Open and Women’s 8+.  The winners of each 8+ category will be able to race off against the other 8+ winners, and the overall fastest 8+ will be awarded our new 3m City Sprints Pennant to display at your club until next year’s race.

Events will be banded as follows:

• Championship – crews containing members who in the past have rowed at national level events such as HRR, HWR, Wallingford and Met regattas or May’s 1^st Division crews
• Club – May’s 2^nd Division crews or town crews that are neither Championship or Novice
• Novice – any crew where all of the members of the crew have not started rowing prior to May 2022 or student crews rowing in the Mays 3^rd division or below
• Masters – Categories from Masters A to G as defined by British Rowing
• Juniors – Categories from J13 to J18 as defined by British Rowing

Where an event has a large number of entries, the organising committee may band entries into student and CRA, or by creating bands based on past performance.  The organising committee reserves the right to change banding if they feel that a crew has been entered in a category that is too low.

Where an event has under 4 entries, the organising committee will offer competitors the option of racing crews of a similar speed by combining classes in order to provide more competition.

Racing take place in divisions with first commencing at 11:00am.  Crews will stay on the water until they are knocked out.  It is expected that racing will finish by 6:00pm.

Any crew boat sharing must include the shell name on the entry form.  Wherever possible we would discourage significant boat sharing.

Entries, draw and results

Entries and payment can be made here.  Entries close on Monday 29 April, or when they sell out.

The draw and live results can be found here.

Prize giving is at 6pm at the end of the day’s racing.

Competitor information

• The race draw will be published here when ready.
• Competitor information can be found here: Sprint Regatta Competitor Instructions 2024
• The risk assessment can be found here: Sprint Regatta Risk Assessment
• Numbers can be collected from the City of Cambridge Boathouse on the morning of racing.
• Boats must be at the pre-division marshalling near New CRA/Combined boathouse at least 30 minutes before the division start time.

Questions and row-through

If you have any questions or would like to request a row-through please contact the Events Secretary.

Marshal instructions

Marshal instructions can be found here: City Sprints Marshal Instructions 2024

The marshal sign up sheet can be found here.