With School’s Head creeping round the corner, Henley fours and eights will be another beneficial event for athletes to further seek improvement in their crews, following on from Hampton and Quintin head. A 3000m course will test their speed as the time period between endurance-style and sprint-lengthed distances begin to crop up.
Men’s J15 Eights
The Men’s J15 8+ category remains very small this year with only Shiplake College entering presumably what will be their first and second eight. With a hint of friendly in-club competition, Shiplake are expected to obviously place but in turn, will help the athletes showcase what their crews have to offer. This will give an indicator to many other crews on how they will row throughout the season. Having not raced at Hampton or Quintin Head, not much data can be found on their speed in crewed boats, but this will be a feasible event for them to gain confidence, come the next season.
Women’s J15 Eights
The WJ15 eights this year have had a good turn out in numbers and nevertheless, strong upcoming competition. Here is the breakdown:
Surbiton High School BC
Surbiton High school has already shown an impressive performance this season, by sweeping up top places in recent events such as a clear win at Hampton Head and a second place at Quintin Head, proving that they are firm competitors. With some competition and close finish times with Henley RC, it will be interesting to see how they will step up for this head. With three eights entered, they will no doubt be dominating this event.
Henley RC
Another very well trained group of athletes and the ‘favourites’ going into this event. Their recent win at Quintin head is sure to have set themselves up for high standards. Earlier on in the year, a set of successful results were achieved from when they raced in quads, showing that they are a strong force on the sculling side, and this has evidently been well transferred into sweeping as well. The advantage of home water and familiarity could give them the upperhand, helping them stay within grasp of the top spot at this event and hopefully maintain a strong performance to the line.
Prediction
Other clubs entered consist of Headington BC and Marlow BC, both crews also with potential to speed down the course and finish with a good time. Marlow recently placed 4th at Hampton Head, demonstrating that they can produce fierce competition and I don’t doubt that they will be looking to place well. This race will be a great opportunity for all crews to start moving into their ‘sprint’ styled race plans, and with this event being one of the first to do so, could create a different mix of results. My prediction is that the top two spots will be battled between Surbiton and Henley with a very close time gap between the two, followed by Surbiton’s other two eights and Marlow and Headington respectively.
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