This is the first opportunity of the new year to see how many of last year’s WJ15 8s fare in smaller boats. With more four based events at the end of the year such as Henley Women’s and the GB France match, it’ll be interesting to see how some of the strongest eights from last year fare against some of the more experienced coxed fours.
Latymer Upper
Latymer’s WJ16s this year are very strong; having come out of last season with a gold at National Schools Regatta in WJ158+, they certainly know how to sweep and it will be interesting to see if they can perform to an equally high standard in a slightly smaller boat on the weekend to beat their opposition.
Emanuel and Putney High
Emanuel and Putney High will most likely have very similar speeds. Having placed 4th and 5th respectively, with both just missing out on the medals at National Schools, they will both be eager to put in a good result against many of the crews who were marginally faster than them last season, as well as trying to place ahead of each other.
Kingston Grammar School
KGS seems to have relatively decent depth, however they are lacking strength as was seen by two mediocre results at NSR last year. Both WJ154+ they entered placed in the top 10 crews, however they were not of the speed to compete with some of the faster crews in the A and B finals. Therefore I think they’ll struggle to match the pace of Latymer, however they should be looking to chase down Great Marlow, who placed 8th at NSR.
Lea RC
Despite not appearing to have much sweep experience, Lea put in a decent performance at Brit champs, placing 5th in the WJ154x+. Provided they can make the transition from sweep to sculling a year behind their competitors, this crew may be surprisingly fast on Saturday.
Sir William Perkins
Provided this crew contains some of the experienced sweepers that earned a silver in the WJ158+ at NSR behind Latymer, SWP are likely to be fast. This is likely to provide some fierce competition on Saturday between SWP and Latymer as I’m sure they will not want to lose out on a win again.
LEH
It is difficult to know which LEH crew is racing, however LEHs programme is strong, and they often produce many talented athletes so my guess is that they will also be competing for the top few spots in this category, and if this is their top boat they should certainly be capable of doing so.
Predictions:
- Latymer
- Sir William Perkins
- Emanuel
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