With Schools’ Head fast approaching, crews will be looking to get some valuable Tideway experience. Hammersmith Head, also raced on the Tideway, can provide just that. A slightly shorter course will provide a good testing ground for these juniors to compare their speeds and see how they can make up vital seconds in preparation for SHORR.
Westminster School Boat Club
With their boat house located in Putney, Westminster will look to use home-advantage when it comes to race day. After coming a close second a couple of weeks ago at Hampton Head, only behind the host school, they will look to build on this and hope that they have been able to find that extra gear over the last few weeks. Furthermore, a win at the start of the year at Quintin will give Westminster the confidence that they need to do it again.
Kings College School Boat Club
Similarly to Westminster, KCS are situated on the Tideway and they too recently raced at Hampton Head. Both schools will go into this race as rivals, KCS were only two seconds behind Westminster and will be driven to make that time up. It will be a close fight between these two and with it evident this will be a similar line-up to the one entered at Hampton, the crew will be well coached, practised with eachother, and ready to bring it at Hammersmith.
St Paul’s School Boat Club
One of the major names in schoolboy rowing, St Paul’s will be looking to relay this into the J16 categories. Towards the start of the year, they were able to pick up second place at Quintin Head. Maybe somewhat unsurprising since they were well-trained over the summer, and had the home-ground advantage which proves extra-beneficial so early on in the season. However, it is unclear how similar the boats are that were entered at Quintin and Hammersmith so it will be interesting to see how they get on, but no doubt they will be right near the top.
Radley College Boat Club
Again, another big name in junior rowing. A similar crew to this also raced at Quintin Head who will know how they match up against the schools above. With a fourth-place finish at Quintin, Radley will know that they can push into medal-winning positions. However, they still need to make up some seconds on the likes of Westminster and St Paul’s and they will hope that their training will pay off.
Hampton School Boat Club
Off the back of a win at Hampton Head as the host crew, Hampton will look to push on and quickly show that they are a crew that means business. They may be a dark horse coming into this but they have been able to show that they can get good speeds and as they have a recent win, spirits will be high coming into Hammersmith, and they will be sure to try to show they are a crew that shouldn’t be messed with.
Prediction
It will be very closely fought, usually only a couple of seconds between all of these crews in the last couple of races. However, I believe that with a few weeks of solid training with no races in between, some of these crews will be able to make up some extra time and jump up the order a little bit.
- KCS
- Westminster
- Hampton
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