As Hampton Head comes upon us this weekend, crews will have been prepping themselves to face the competition at one of the bigger heads in the season, all in preparation for Schools’ head which is fast approaching. The WJ16 4x is a large category with some really strong competiton between some of the top crews in the country. There should be some exciting racing with close timings over the reasonably short head course, giving way to some interesting results. This preview includes a look at a few of the crews who will be competing this weekend.
Bewl Bridge Rowing Club
Bewl are one of the smaller clubs in this division so it will be interesting to see how they fight the competition this weekend against some of the bigger clubs. However, they did compete at Maidstone Autumn Head late last year where they came 2nd. Hopefully this will have been good preparation for the upcoming races left in this head season.
Headington School Oxford BC
Headington have been quiet for a little while recently however, their performance this weekend will be much anticipated as they often have strong results (eg generally placing very well at National Schools’ Regatta). More recently, they placed 4th at Wallingford Long Distance Sculls which was a strong result amongst the difficult field of competition. Hopefully the all girls school will have been putting in the hard work and will see some really positive results this weekend at Hampton Head.
Latymer Upper School BC
Over the past few months Latymer have been busy, putting out their crews at many events. The club were successful at 4s Head of the River where thier WJ18 4+ came 2nd. Although these results can’t directly correlate to these WJ16 quads it does show a strong training program which should have filtered down to the younger squads. It will be interesting to see how their results fare against the other crews in this division, as Latymer are known for being a strong squad with large numbers. The WJ16 4x did however come 5th at Henley Long Distance Sculls earlier this season showing a promising start against some tough competiton so it will be an exciting race to see how they have developed over the winter.
Marlow Rowing Club
Marlow are another strong contender and are known for their impressive results. This squad appears to be very capable of getting good results, although they haven’t entered masses of races so far this season. At Henley Long Distance Sculls the girls achieved a very respectable 2nd and 4th. They should be regarded as strong competiton for the other girls in this division after that very strong result in a difficult field. It will be interesting to see how they have grown and got stronger since their last appearance.
Putney High School Rowing Club
Although Puntney are generally known for being a successful club, this particular squad seem to have very few notable results at the moment so it will be intriguing to see how they compare to the other crews in the category.
Sir William Perkin’s School Rowing Club
At the British Rowing Championships the girl’s quad came 1st in their B final which was a very impressive 5th overall. Later on in the season they won both a quad at Kingston Regatta and then further going on to win an eight along with a double whilst competing at the Reading AM regatta over the summer, therefore have a backing of strong results. As this substantial squad moved into the head season they placed a very strong 3rd at Henley Long Distance Sculls which will stand them in good stead moving into this weekend’s race. The girl’s squad as a whole at Sir William Perkin’s School have putting out some stiff competition. At the 4s Head of the River they placed a very respectable 3rd showing a lot of promise for an impressive performance this weekend.
Prediction:
1st Latymer
2nd Marlow
3rd Sir William Perkin’s
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