A 2k regatta in October?! Ridiculous, some may say but, for all rowing neutrals, it gives us an early chance to see the standard of competition in Junior world. The GB rowing team are out in force this weekend, competing in O2x, O4x, O4- and O8+ among others as well as the equivalent women events. It should be a fantastic weekend of high caliber racing but my focus is upon the, somewhat limited, junior events or U19. I’ll preview the only two events I can here….
OU192x
This is only going to the formidable combination of Sholto Carnegie and Seb Devereux from Leander. These two, although no longer juniors in the eyes of British Rowing, raced at the Junior World Championships this summer, placing 5th in the double scull. I would put a substantial bet on these two taking the win. The other crew to take note of, in my opinion, is the White twins from The Windsor Boys School. These guys won the Reading Small Boats Head by 30 seconds and are always a decent double. However this event is only going to be won by Leander.
OU194x
Another small entry but we get to see Sir William Borlase in action for the first time this year. I tipped these guys for success this year and this line-up looks strong, with two of last years HRR finalist quad in the boat. The most interesting name, however, is Fraser Russell. This lad rowed for Marlow until last year, in the ‘B’ quad for HRR and the silver medalist J164x at NSR. It appears that, in pursuit of glory, he has switched clubs to SWB. This will only strengthen the SWB assault and I fancy them to open the 2013/2014 season with a win. Close on their tail will be Northwich and Evesham. Both rowed at HRR last year, making the Thursday. Northwich are racing in the exact same line-up as last year while Evesham have introduced the precocious talents of their J164x with Liam Tustin. I can see it being close between these two but I think Northwich will claim 2nd place. The Gloucester composite will also be quick, containing a few of the guys who won a bronze medal in OJ4x at Brit Champs in July. SWB for the win followed by Northwich then Evesham.
A quick word on the Pairs Head at the weekend. Pretty strong accuracy on my predictions, with three of the five winning crews [J182x, WJ182x, WJ182-] as I predicted. A fourth was the right club but wrong crew [J182-]. Some good results, particularly Cam Kerr and Sam Meijer from Westminster. They won J182x by 17 seconds and recorded the fourth fastest time of the day, an extraordinary feat for a junior crew! Bill Mason at work once again… St Pauls look strong this year, with the top 4 pairs all from them.
Additionally, a Marlow contingent traveled down to Bedford SBH. These boys were not the top scullers at the club but were still fairly strong i.e. Moran, Treasure, Crossley. However the message coming out of Bedford was the speed of Star, who absolutely dominated the junior events albeit against limited competition. Their top J184x, under the name of White, won the event by a clear 16 seconds and recorded the fastest time of the day [6:23]. Star also notched up wins in J182x [7:26] and J181x [White in 7:34]. The strength of Star will certainly be one to watch and Fours Head should be the first real indication of speed against the other clubs.
This photo was taken from: http://www.britishrowing.org/news/2013/july/4/brit-champs-launches-new-website
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