With Henley now two weeks behind us, and the memory of those glorious five days of racing fading, you would be forgiven for thinking the junior season was over. However, for many clubs across the country, the British Rowing Junior Championships is one of the highlights of their year, with many gathering at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham to compete in this great event- the last large-scale side by side regatta of the summer. As usual, the entries are dominated by clubs, with virtually all school crews having already disappeared for their summer holidays. Having said that, in the J16 4x- category, there are still two school entries, with a total of 13 crews battling it out down Holme Pierrepont for a medal.
Claires Court School BC
One of only two school entries, Claires Court have been a big name in the junior sculling world in recent years, and often produce quick crews. This J16 4x- is predominantly made up of the quad that convincingly won the B-Final of J16 4x- at National Schools’ back in May. Hennessey also raced in their 6th place 2nd 4x-, and Byerley and Foy in the Non-Champ 8+ that came last in the C-Final. The fourth crew member for the BRJC is listed as Kabir-Dev Bhalla– who was the cox of that 8+. I don’t know whether that was a mistake, or he both rows and coxes, but either way I don’t think they’ll be coming home with a medal.
Durham School BC
The only other school entry is from Durham– a boat club that has never really competed at the highest level nationally. These J16’s came a fairly respectable 6th in the B-Final of the quad at National Schools’, and other than that I have very few results for them, but I doubt if they’ll be challenging the top crews.
Tideway Scullers School
These four J16’s from TSS have probably had the best season they could possibly have dreamed of, with wins in almost everything- including a gold medal at the Junior Sculling Head and Regatta, and at National Schools’, all by considerable margins. They also qualified for the Fawley as J16’s, racing as TSS B, losing to Walton’s top junior crew on the Wednesday by just half a length. However, to top off their already dominant season, they won the J16 4x- GB time trial at Dorney, and therefore donned their first GB vest to beat France in the annual GB vs France match. Another gold at the BRJC will serve as further evidence that this could be one of the best junior quads in the country in the next two years, and I don’t think that anything, short of illness or injury, will stop them.
Lea RC
This crew is very much the dark horse of the event. The Lea J16’s have barely raced as a J16 4x-, with Sam O’Connor racing at bow in the Lea Champ 4x- that came 4th at NSR. Two of the other members of this crew- Lucas Crocombe, and Marlow DePeza-Purvis, were in the Lea 2nd 4x- that won the B-Final of that event. They then split into a double on the Sunday, with the J16 2x of O’Connor and DePeza-Purvis taking the bronze medal in a close final. Those two athletes then won the GB J16 2x trials and beat France convincingly in the GB vs France match. I think this shows that the quad is made up of a group of very talented guys- and although it’s hard to tell how fast they will be when combined together- if anyone can beat Tideway Scullers, it will be them.
Team Keane Sculling School
Team Keane are another Tideway based club- but they rarely produce gold medal winning crews. This J16 4x- is stroked by Carlos Garofolin, who raced in a J16 2x at NSR, managing 17th. This crew is made up of that double, and half of their J16 quad that came 18th at NSR- so I don’t think they’ll be challenging for medals.
Wallingford RC
Wallingford is a club with a fantastic stretch of water to train on- home to both Oxford University, and Oxford Brookes, and they are known to occasionally produce very fast crews. This quad has been quick all season- but has perhaps always been slightly off the pace of TSS and the other top crews. They placed 8th way back at the Junior Sculling Head but managed to better that with a 5th place at the National Schools’ Regatta- about 10 seconds behind the gold medal winning crew. However, I’m sure they’ll have been working very hard since then to try and better that- so they’ll probably be looking for some silverware this weekend.
Other Crews
As well as those mentioned above, there are quite a lot of smaller club crews who appear to have barely competed at all this season, other than at small local events. These include Avon County, York City, Cantabrigian, Durham ARC, Evesham RC, and Sunderland City, as well as a composite crew racing on home turf, made up of Trent RC and Burton Leander. This makes it very hard to predict their speed, but with many of these athletes managing only a few sessions a week, I find it hard to believe that any can challenge the speed of the top J16 quads.
Predictions
I think that unlike many of the events at this year’s British Rowing Junior Championships, the J16 4x- will be pretty clear cut. I’m expecting Tideway Scullers School to take a convincing victory, followed by Lea RC, and with Wallingford RC picking up the bronze. However, as I said, if there was to be any upset, I think that it would come from the boys at Lea RC.
MarginalGainz
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