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The British Rowing Championships have returned to Nottingham after a brief trip to Strathclyde last year, which was accompanied by high winds and some rough water. Next weekend will mark its first appearance as a larger, joint junior and senior club event lasting four days. The Junior 18 Women’s Quads will be racing on Saturday with time trials, semifinals, repechages, and finals all held on the same day, meaning recovery between these races will be crucial. Many of these athletes are racing in doubles the day before so they’ll be extra fatigued. We see nineteen different crews competing, and as many top athletes in this age category will be away due to GB commitments we might get to see some unusual crew combinations.
Marlow Rowing Club
Coming in as clear favourites for this event is Marlow Rowing Club who have had an outstanding season in the quad, with second at Schools’ Head of the River and the National Schools’ Regatta, as well as becoming finalists at Henley Women’s and Henley Royal Regatta. This is almost their top crew, only missing their stroke from HRR, and all of the members have been cycled into the top boat at some point throughout the season. This same combination also won the Junior Sculling Regatta so I expect them to be in control for this race too. This is a crew to watch for next year as they have two J17s in the boat who are staying at Marlow and I’m sure will form a formidable duo in the 2024/25 season.
Lea Rowing Club
Another rowing club with lots of success this season is Lea RC, topped off by a recent quarterfinal appearance in the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup at HRR. They will be missing at least two of their top athletes, nevertheless, I’d expect this unit to scull well and show some speed next weekend, with at least their bow-woman returning from their fourth-place finish in the quad at NSR. This could be a similar quad to the Lea boat that qualified 10th fastest for the Bea Langridge trophy at HWR or their ‘B’ boat that was the sixth fastest non-qualifier for HRR. Two athletes are from the Lea quad that came third in the B final at JSR and with many of the quicker quads not present in this event, they will likely be looking towards the A final on Saturday.
Rob Roy Boat Club
What an incredible achievement by Rob Roy Boat Club to qualify for the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup at HRR this year, and fully deserved by these girls. They raced extremely well in a close race against Shrewsbury on the Tuesday, and although they didn’t progress in the regatta, they will have progressed as a crew since and have now had more time training the quad. They’ve already shown their speed in doubles for part of the season, claiming first and fourth in the B final of the Champ 2x at NSR and their top double qualifying seventh and getting to Sunday of the Rayner Cup at HWR.
Tideway Scullers School
Although not quite reaching the heights of last year’s Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup victory, Tideway have had a consistently successful season this year, starting with a third place at SHORR, medalling in multiple champ events at NSR and finally reaching the semifinals of both HWR and HRR. However the Tideway crew entered into this event is not their ‘A’ boat, and I imagine are part of their ‘B’ boat that has raced throughout the year in various combinations. Some of these athletes came 3rd in the B final of the Ch 4x at NSR, and some raced at HWR where the club qualified two quads and a double, highlighting the impressive depth of quality sculling being produced.
Great Marlow School Boat Club
The second fastest non-qualifier in the Diamond Jubilee, less than a second behind Tideway ‘B’, Great Marlow School should have a lot of confidence in their speed as a unit, and I imagine this close miss will only make them more fired up for next weekend. Most of this crew seems to have raced together throughout the season, with a thirteenth-place finish at SHORR and fourth in the B final of the Ch4x at NSR. Therefore they will be more practiced than most other entries into this event and this experience together could favour them due to the packed racing schedule.
Trentham Boat Club
According to the entry list, this Trentham quad is the same crew that has raced together throughout the season, so have plentiful race experience and will be able to execute their plan clearly and together. They’ve come second in the B final in the Ch4x at NSR and won the B final at JSR so they already have had good results and should have confidence as they’ve beaten other crews they will be racing on the weekend.
Nottingham Rowing Club/ Nottingham & Union Rowing Club
It’s always interesting to see how composite crews perform and this combination from Nottingham RC and Nottingham & Union looks to be a strong outfit. The 2 Nottingham RC girls appear to be the stroke pair from their quad this season that won the B final of the Ch 4x at NSR and qualified 9th fastest into HWR. Nottm & union raced a quad at HRR qualifiers, coming only 0.5s behind the Lea ‘B’ boat, so with the strongest members of both Nottingham clubs coming together they could turn this result around. One member of this crew A Page recently raced the pair at the J16 GB-France match so this quad may not have trained together recently, but will definitely have some power.
Other entries:
Many other crews on this list also raced at National Schools’ Regatta in the Ch 4x, with Stratford upon Avon, Tees and Staines coming second, seventh and eighth respectively in the C final. Looking at these results we could see some very exciting racing on Saturday as Tees rowed through Staines in the last 500 and only beat them by 0.07s, and assuming the crews are similar we could see another close final.
Prediction:
I think Marlow will dominate this event, but behind them, the scrap for medals will be a tight one. If I had to choose I would back Rob Roy and Lea to take the other podium positions, but think the Nottingham composite could challenge this, and then I predict Tideway, Trentham and Great Marlow will be fighting to fill out the A final. But this is an event to watch and I’m sure we’ll see close racing throughout all the finals and from all the nineteen crews entered.
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