The small boats race will be taking place over a 3000 metre course down by Hampton School. The timing of the race itself is an awkward one with it being the same time as the GB early assessments. Thus possibly stopping some of the high calibre athletes attending. However the field is packed in both divisions with 44 boats racing, so with that lets get onto the previews.
Division 1
Hampton- The Hampton boys entered into this division are very good lads. With Ladhur and Cross both picking up two golds at NSR last year and earning themselves a GB vs France vest in the process. With the home water advantage these guys should offer some very stiff opposition to their sculling counterparts.
Latymer Upper- Not to be outdone by Hamptons medal winners in this division, Latymer have their own gold medallists. The members of the J16 4+ from last year have been put into singles with Treager, Phelps, McChesney and Ward racing. Latymer train on the tideway so the water at Hampton should make a nice change for them and it should allow them to get the most out of their boat speed.
High Wycombe- The secret identities of HWG A,B and C will only become known to us on race day. But one thing we do know is that High Wycombe is a sculling based school. So these boys will be sculling specialists. HWG are however without their two best J17s who have opted to move their sculling over to Maidenhead. So we will have to see how these guys perform to see if these losses have had any real effect.
Henley Reid- He was part of the J16 second Quad which reached the C final last year at Nat schools and came second. This is impressive considering it was a second boat. Reid may be using this weekend to work his way up into that top boat by showing his speed down the course.
KGS Holman- Holman was part of the J16 4+ which made the A final at NSR last year. It should spur him on knowing the Latymer guys are in this division as they won that race. So he will be hoping to take a few scalps and move up the ranking.
Division 2
Hampton- There are more Hampton boys in this division with three from the gold medal winning 8. They are Davis, Fieldhouse and Cockett the internal battle between the Hampton scullers should get this division moving on as a whole time wise. With the Hampton J17s who weren’t at the top of their J16 boat wanting to move up the order and get a seat in their top 8.
Radley- Radley have got Innes-Ker and Brassard in this division both of whom raced in their second 4 + which placed a respectable 22nd at the Charles. They were both part of the Radley 2nd 8 which just missed out on the A Final even with a big weight advantage. They should put a decent performance down considering Radley have been doing some sculling events recently ; so they will be used to the boats.
Molesey- They are a very well established Club not only in Britain but also world wide. Known for producing athletes such as Mo Sbihi and in the junior circuit Oli Ayres. This should allow them to pick up some athletes who are physiologically gifted but haven’t yet tried rowing; or athletes who want to move on to a good programme. So we will see how they go at Hamton Head.
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