Men’s Championship Quads, the premier event for scullers at BUCS Regatta and one of the highest quality events at the Regatta. With only six entrants this year the format has been adjusted so that the time trial is just for ranking for lane allocation in the A final.
Hartpury & Bath
Out of these crews the only ones that raced at Met Regatta were Bath and Hartpury. Both made it to the A final of Open Quads with Bath coming fifth and Hartpury eighth. These crews are both made up of athletes on the World Class Start programme, the talent ID scheme run by British Rowing. This will be an interesting clash and kudos will go to whichever crew comes out on top with bragging rights going to coaches Dan Harris and Will King.
Newcastle
Newcastle University have put together a formidable crew including Henley Royal winner Alex Milne, GB international Joe Adamson and first eight stalwart Bruce Turnell. This is Newcastle’s top boat for this day of racing, and they will settle for nothing but gold. A typical feature at the front of Men’s Championship Quads this crew has everything they need to go all the way.
Reading
Reading are also one of the favourites, given their track record of consistently winning medals across sculling events at BUCS they’d be a shoe-in for a medal. However, they were pipped for third place in Championship Quads at Marlow Regatta by Hartpury throwing into doubt their form this season. This could of course be more of a reflection of Hartpury’s speed than Reading’s, we’ll have to wait until the day to find out!
Durham
The Durham crew which is entered hasn’t raced this season, so it’s difficult to say how quick they will be. It’s likely though, that some of the athletes will have been part of the crew which took gold at BUCS Head 2020, beating the likes of Reading and Newcastle. If Durham have maintained this form in the quad they will be at the head of the field contesting the win.
Nottingham
Nottingham University is the final entrant and like Durham not much is known about this crew. It seems unlikely that they will be in with a shout of winning this race but given that Nottingham have made a huge entry to this year’s Regatta they obviously have a good level of squad depth this year. But is the quality there? And is it enough to take on the big dogs?
Prediction: Newcastle gold, Durham silver, Reading bronze. Take this with a pinch of salt, now as always each crew has a chance to take the win on the day. With two years of no BUCS racing, it will be incredibly exciting to see these crews once again and set the tone for the summer ahead.
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