Not a huge amount of entries for the J18 doubles, however some fairly big names are present here and it looks to be a great race nonetheless. At last year’s British Rowing Junior Championships, Smith of Windsor Boys finished second in the ‘C’ final of OJ1x. He was also a member of the Windsor Boys Fawley quad. If he is partnered with Harry Oliver, who also raced in the WBS crew at Henley, then I fancy them to be strong. It will be interesting to see how the Monmouth double of Dewey fairs at Hampton. Dewey made up part of the Monmouth first 4+ at NSR last year, however they failed to progress any further than the time trial. However these J18s will have the eyes firmly set on progressing further in the Princess Elizabeth at Henley this year and will be driven by a determination for a strong head season. I’d say they’d be realistically aiming for the top 3. My favourites for this event are the duo from Norwich, who after the pair’s results from last summer, show they have some serious speed. Youngs proved himself to be fast when he finished 5 seconds behind Fraser Russell of Sir William Borlase in the time trial of the J17 singles at National Schools’. I expect this crew to dominate come Saturday.
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