With the excitement of Henley now fading away and NSR a distant memory, the time has come for British Rowing Junior Championships. The open men’s fours event has yet to become part of Henley’s lineup so these crews will have been training hard since National Schools. This year’s entry has eight crews from across the country with both a mixture of clubs and schools and even two composite crews.
Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association
The ASRA put in a huge performance in this event at NSR placing fourth, however within half a second of placing in second at a rapid pace of 06:37.56. The ASRAs women’s sweep squad have also had a great deal of success, winning the pairs at NSR with both Zoe Beeson and Maisie Aspinall representing team GB this year.
Hampton School / Molesey BC
The first of the two composite crews, this crew is particularly interesting as it is made up of a school team and a club. Molesey’s crew placed 4th in the B-final of this event at NSR however they put in a very good time beating a number of crews that they lost to in the time trial and semi-finals. Hampton school’s senior sweep squad has focused more on their eight this year, placing last in the B-final but also going on to make it to Wednesday of HRR before being knocked out by King’s School Parramatta from Australia.
Hereford RC
Placing in a strong second in this event at NSR Hereford RC will compete again at BRJC. All members of the crew remain in the same seats as they were when they rowed a blisteringly fast time of 06:37.05 at Dorney lake, beating Westminster School for 3rd place by only 0.9 seconds. Perhaps an even more impressive feat however occurred at Henley Royal Regatta, where the crew from Hereford qualified successfully as the only junior crew in the Wyfold Challenge Cup, in spite of a Tuesday loss, this certainly set a president for junior club rowers.
Henley RC / Walton RC
The second composite crew is made up of two strong clubs from Oxfordshire and London. Although Henley RC did not compete in this event at NSR, the crew entered at BRJC is made up of three of Walton RCs athletes who performed very well, placing at the top of the B final at NSR. With a rearranged crew and one new athlete from Henley this crew could prove to be very strong against a smaller field of competition at Nottingham this weekend.
Other entries
Tyne RC, Nottingham and Union RC and Greater Marlow School are also competing in this event. A mixture of both strong schools and squads from across the country, these crews will certainly provide interesting racing at the weekend.
Predictions
With a recent strong performance in the same crew, Hereford RC will certainly be a strong crew up for the top spot and the ASRA will certainly be close behind. The two composite crews are both made up of strong squads and it will be interesting to see how the combination stacks up against the existing crews.
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