The British Rowing Junior Championships bookends the 2022 regatta season and marks the start of a well earned break for most rowers (depending on the kindness of your coach). As you would expect its occurrence after Henley means the absence of many crews who are already off sunning on a beach somewhere – and the upcoming Junior Worlds and Coupe de la Jeunesse means the top international athletes won’t be there either. The high temperatures forecast for the weekend ahead means some changes to the racing timetable. Following a time trial on Saturday morning crews will be seeded directly into finals with minor finals happening later that afternoon and A and B finals occurring Sunday morning.
The Windsor Boys School
The club that needs no introduction, after years of domination, the Windsor Boys continue their domination in boys sculling. After the season they’ve had i think you could call the result on Sunday a certainty. This is the same crew which raced at the National Schools Regatta and won Championship Gold. The four of them were a part of the club’s history making all Windsor Fawley final with two of them winning it. Windsor will hop to retain their title on Sunday after a commanding victory last season. With entries in all J18 sculling events, the school will campaign for a clean sweep, alike to their NSR performance.
Hartpury College
Hartpury had a somewhat slow start to the season but following an impressive performance at the National Schools finishing 5th (and only 1.8 seconds off a medal) they’ve established themselves as one of the fastest crews this year. They had a short Henley losing to Windsor Boys B on the Tuesday, determined by an unlucky draw, but that result shouldn’t be sneered at as they gave the eventual finalists their joint closest race of the regatta (losing by only 1 ¼ lengths).
Marlow Rowing Club
Marlow has had a good season. Their J16 and J18 crews finished 1st and 7th respectively at NSR, so have notable depth and will continue to gain momentum in the coming years. Another notable achievement was that they were the only club other than Windsor Boys to qualify two crews into the Fawley (both pre qualified). They’ve got two crews entered into the J18 category so it seems they’re all in with their top athletes to give them the best chance at a medal.
Predictions
Windsor will win followed by either Hartpury or Marlow, with the likes of Borlase or York to scrap over the remaining places. With an unusual draw of entries we may also see some surprise performances: the Queen’s Park- Warrington crew have seen significant success in smaller boats at local regattas, George Watson’s College will travel over the border from Scotland, hoping to better their Thursday finish at Henley Royal (which itself was nonetheless an impressive feat). After some disappointment in not qualifying for HRR, the Wycliffe College crew sees a shakeup of members, perhaps finding speed over June.
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