Hampton Head is always an extremely popular event, and especially so this year being after EIDs. The draw is absolutely stacked and with times from both divisions being combined in each event, this may be interesting if conditions change and we have a total of 27 entries in this category.
Both Divisions 1 & 2
Henley RC- Orr
Henley have had some strong sculling performances already this year, and Lottie Orr comes off the back of an impressive win at HOR4s in junior women’s quads, with the 6th fastest time in this boat class of the whole event, as well as a 2nd place finish at EIDs. She was also part of the JWRC quad that narrowly missed out on a medal in the summer. Henley have already been very consistent with their performances this year and with their large squad of junior women, whoever joins her in this crew I’d expect this double will be the one of the crews to catch.
Molesey BC-1/2 and Dunford
The name that comes to mind when it comes to Molesey and their junior girls has to be Holly Dunford; recently shortlisted by Sports Aid for her achievements that include her JWRC gold medal in the double scull, as well as a recent 15th place finish at the first water assessment for senior trials. Having said this, at Kingston SBH the MBC junior quad did not include this standout athlete, but they won this category pretty comfortably. I would expect all of these crews to be fast, particularly on their home stretch, but especially Dunford‘s crew.
Surbiton- Pearson
Surbiton had a strong younger squad last year, but they seemed to lack in depth in the older age groups. Without an entry at HOR4s, it is hard to compare, but their quad at Kingston SBH finished 2nd about 10s behind Molesey. They were bronze medalists in coxed fours at NSR last season, and whilst this isn’t such a competitive category being the same day as eights, this is still a promising result. It will be interesting to see how what I’d assume is the top half of their quad fare against some stiff competition here.
Headington – Greig-Connor, Smith, Lockhart, Wuethrich, Burn and Stevens
Headington are certainly not short of entries in this category, with what appears to be their faster girls racing in the second division. Mattea Wuethrich raced as part of HSOBC’s very fast top quad last year and placed 12th overall in her single at JWRC. Headington have not yet shown any early season form like their rivals Henley have, but I’d be surprised if a few of these crews weren’t challenging the top end of finishers, in particular Wuethrich‘s crew.
Twickenham – Duthart
Twickenham kicked off the season with an unexpected quad entry at Wallingford LDS, and despite their relative inexperience as a crew they placed 3rd. Duthart was their top junior woman last season racing primarily in her single, winning the WJ17 1x single at the Junior Sculling Regatta and reaching the semi final of junior singles at Henley Women’s Regatta. Twickenham have already proved that their relatively scratch quad had plenty of power behind it to produce a good result, so I’d expect them to go out and do the same here.
Lady Eleanor Holles – Mason, Taylor and Witt
This is LEH’s home turf and they have a huge list of entries throughout the different categories. It looks like a lot of their fast athletes will be sticking to sweep and racing in the pairs, but LEH fairly consistently find themselves near the top end of events and I’d expect nothing less here. However, at HOR4s their coxed four placed 4th whereas their quad only placed 9th. Witt put in a good performance recently at EIDs and reached the semi finals of junior singles at Henley Women’s as only a J16, so her double especially should be fast on Saturday.
Prediction:
In Divison 1, Henley-Orr as fastest with Molsey- Dunford to top Division 2. Combined times will be interesting, but the third spot to be taken by Headington-Wuethrich.
RockOver
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