On Saturday hundreds of athletes will take to the Thames in what is always one of the most exciting and, for followers of the Championship Eights, illuminating head races of the winter as we see clubs starting to form combinations for the Schools’ Head. Quintin Head brought some surprises and set the tone for this year’s field, but with the eights being in the second division we will see these crews break down into smaller boat classes – most excitingly the pair. With GB trials looming, we will likely see each club’s top athletes pairing up to gain some invaluable experience and set a marker for themselves.
Kings College School Boat Club
I think the obvious favourites here will be KCS. Their eight showed some impressive speed at Quintin, winning the J18 category and more importantly, they were asked to bring three pairs to the GB U19 training day. I would say with reasonable certainty that three of the four KCS pairs are trialists and the fourth will be the remaining two members of the eight, who I’m sure are not to be sniffed at. I wouldn’t be surprised to see KCS grabbing many of the top spots.
Hampton School Boat Club
Hampton are another program that were asked to bring three pairs to the training day, showing some impressive depth. This coupled with the fact that this is their home water makes me think that Hampton will provide some strong competition for the KCS pairs. Due to the string of cancellations this winter, we haven’t seen much of Hampton. However, they looked to be moving well on their Seville camp in October and I’ve heard they have some strong J16s bolstering their ranks.
Dulwich College Boat Club
Dulwich only had one pair invited to the training day this year, but with one of the pair reportedly breaking Dulwich’s 5k erg record, I think they could be rapid and challenge KCS for some of the top spots. We saw some strong results from the club at the Docklands and their matched eights showed some good speed at Quintin, so I have no doubt the other Dulwich pairs will be competitive – I am excited to see how they perform.
St George’s College Boat Club
St George’s have a pair trialling this year but we’ve seen in the past that St George’s can produce some strong athletes but not necessarily convert their power into results on the water – however, at this stage of the season and with so few races so far, this is just speculation and I look forward to being proven wrong.
Emanuel School Boat Club
Emanuel could be a dark horse – they had one athlete, Thomas Pearson, invited to the training day so I’m sure this will be a highly respectable pair looking for some racing experience. As with St George’s though, can they move the pair?
Other entries
Walton and Kingston have been known to produce some solid performances in smaller boats during regatta season, but I think that with some of the powerhouses of schoolboy rowing flooding this category, I’m not sure I can see these two coming out on top.
Predictions
I have a KCS pair taking the overall win but I am excited to see how Dulwich, St George’s and Hampton slot into the finish order. Having said that the pair is possibly the most volatile boat class and anything can happen.
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