Elite sculling returns to Nottingham this weekend with the best student rowers from across the country featuring in what will be a fiercely competitive field. Racing across a number of the sculling events, most of these athletes will have their endurance tested repeatedly from the Saturday through to the Monday. It’s unlikely that we’ll witness the same outcome across each of the boat classes. There are nuances to each and everyone has a preference. Some crews will have trained more in one than they will others. It means, therefore, that predicting the outcome of this race won’t solely be possible on the basis of talent or technical skill, rather, it’ll be decided by their priorities and where they see the greatest benefit come the end of the season.
Reading University BC
Entering both halves of their championship quad, Reading should be the favourites for this event. When racing as a unit they have performed strongly, putting good distance between them and their competition. It could be a question of which Reading boat is the fastest. Separating them is a difficult task though one would think that the crew featuring the most recent GB trials winner, Matt Long, should have the edge. It is, however, a boat of two people and there will be little difference between each of these four rowers. In the past there have been a number of narrative reversals at BUCS Regatta and there’s always an opportunity to upset the applecart. It tends to be a matter of in which race it’ll arrive.
Bath University BC
Bath, like Reading, has two crews entered into this event. The hope, much like it will be in the quad, is to challenge for a medal. Angus Pollock, who was one half of a Bath crew which came fifth in the intermediate doubles this time last year, will hope that he and his crew mates have what it takes to step into the shoes of Cedom Daffyd and James Gare, who claimed the silver medal in the championship category in 2023. From the outside, it seems as though Bath have moved into the next stage of their development. Having had a real highlight in talent over the past couple of years, the perpetual cycle of university sports turns to producing this on a continual basis. This is the test that Bath, and GB performance academies more generally, face .
Durham University BC
The dark horses in this event are Durham University. Charlie Warren, formerly of Windsor Boys School, makes up half of this crew. Having won the 2022 triple in the quad at Schools’ Head of the River, National Schools’ Regatta and the Fawley Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, Warren moved to Durham and finished fourth in this category last summer. Hoping to take his crew one step further, the experience that he has could secure a medal in what is a very evenly matched field. What plays to his advantage is that this is a different group of athletes from those that finished ahead of him. He has the opportunity to turn up and deliver in a way that he has done so many times before.
Queen’s University Belfast
Looking to make their feature a regular one in the championship events, Queen’s will be hoping to replicate some of the successes that they saw in their quad at BUCS Head. After finishing third, something similar in the double at BUCS Regatta would be an immense result for the Irish university. Last year, the entry from Queen’s placed in sixth, and anything that improves on this would be considered a success. This is underselling the ability that this crew has, however. Ciaran Purdy is an U23 world medalist in this event and has the most international pedigree of anyone in the field. Whether this is enough to beat some of the brightest up-and-coming talent on the domestic scene remains to be seen.
Prediction
There’s an immense amount of talent that’ll feature in this race. My expectation is that Reading will win this race, whichever boat that might be. Durham and Queen’s, however, won’t be far behind them.
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