The Women’s Academic Coxed Four looks to have some strong entries this year. There is a huge range in the size of the clubs competing, and it’s great to see so many college crews entered alongside larger university clubs. Although the big names are expected to be the main challengers, which events the clubs have chosen to prioritise could play a significant factor in the results.
University of London BC
University of London are set to field two strong crews in this category, using their familiarity of the Tideway to their advantage. However, following their fantastic run at Henley over the summer many of their top athletes aren’t eligible for the academic event, so their results here should be a good indicator of the depth of their squad with new and upcoming athletes taking seats in this event.
Surrey University BC
Surrey also have two crews entered, which look to be their ‘B’ and ‘C’ crews respectively. Having not entered this event last year, they’ll be looking to build on a fantastic summer which saw their women’s squad win medals at both BUCS Regatta and Henley Women’s. Individual athletes to watch for include Sacha Kennedy who recently competed in the first round of GB trials as an U23 lightweight.
Southampton University BC
Southampton triumphed in this category in 2022 by a significant margin so will be looking to replicate that result once again. Their stronger entry in this category includes their senior women’s captain Stephanie Gordon, a veteran of Henley Women’s Regatta. She’s joined by former BUCS medallist Hannah Barrett, which indicates they have aspirations to challenge for the top places.
Oxford University Women’s BC
Oxford University Women have two crews entered this year and will be keeping one eye on how they measure up to the two respective open-weight Cambridge crews entered here. Although they don’t look to have fielded their top boats in this category, OUWBC could be one of those able to potentially challenge if other clubs fail to perform. Furthermore, Boat Race enthusiasts will be interested to see who out of the two shades of blue is looking best positioned at this stage in the season.
Others
The rest of the field comprises primarily of London college clubs who will be looking to get push the larger universities. In addition to the open weight crews, both Oxford and Cambridge have lightweight rowers (represented Oxford University Women’s Lightweight RC and Cambridge University BC respectively) racing in this category, who may look to try and close the gap to their open weight counterparts. It is also interesting that Cambridge have returned to this category, having exclusively raced in champ categories last year.
Prediction
University of London probably head in at the favourites even with their strongest athletes likely to feature in the championship categories, however, expect them to be pushed hard by Southampton and Surrey. Hopefully, Oxford and Cambridge will also manage to push for the top spots, which should set them up for an exciting set Boat Race and reserve race, and hopefully incentivise the two clubs to keep getting involved with other racing opportunities.
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