With 24 entries in the time trial and 8 crews going to the semifinals, this is guaranteed to be an extremely cutthroat event. Given that there are only two events for J16 girls, a lot of the competition will be concentrated into this quad event. In fact, every club in the 8-boat final of the J16G4x at Nationals will be racing this event.
Henley RC -Wright
Henley are the favorites in this event. They have a really strong J16 Girls squad this year and this will be key for this event. The top quad have dominated this season, winning Nationals by a 5 second margin. This means they can come into this race with confidence, but they will still have to work hard if they want to win.
Headington Sch –Hornby
Like Henley, Headington has entered two quads. Second place (17 seconds in front of third) at Nationals puts these girls in a fantastic place. Finals should be in sight for this crew. They were able to beat Henley at Wallingford although it is hard to say what the priority boats were for these teams on that day. Being 5 seconds behind Henley at Nationals wasn’t too far away, but it does make them unlikely winners.
Globe
Globe was able to take third at Nationals this year and this will probably be the same lineup for this event. They will have a good chance of qualifying, but being 22 seconds off of Henley’s pace means it will be a big challenge to try to progress far.
City of Oxford, Llandaff RC –Jenkins, St Peters Sch
These crews were ranked 4th-6th at Nationals and were only about 1.5 seconds away from each other by time. All three crews have a good chance of qualifying. It will be side by side racing that gets interesting because the margins will be very close.
Walbrook, Trent
These two crews round out the A final of Nationals. Both clubs should be on the fringe of qualifying this event, because there are so few spots available. They may be challenged by the B quads of Henley and Headington or by other clubs that haven’t raced this boat at Nationals. It is hard to see them progressing past quarterfinals if they do qualify.
Final prediction is Henley for the win.
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