For many of these young women, Henley Women’s Regatta will be the first time they get to experience 1v1 racing on the iconic Henley stretch. With only eight places available in the side-by-side racing across Saturday and Sunday, these crews will need to make sure they get their time trial right to guarantee themselves a spot racing down the middle of the well-known booms.
Henley RC
Henley J16s have produced consistently strong results in the quad this year, starting off with 2nd at the Junior Sculling Head before winning the Junior Sculling Regatta and, more importantly, National Schols’ Regatta, where they finished 6 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. With this impressive stint of performances, they look to be the ones to beat this weekend and I can definitely see them taking home the Nina Padwick Trophy.
Kingston RC
Kingston RC are another crew who have produced great results so far this year and look most likely to challenge Henley for the win this weekend. After winning at the Junior Sculling Head in March, we then saw them again at National Schools’, where they stormed to second place after crossing the 1000m marker in 5th. I believe these girls can take the fight all the way to the final where they’ll have to dig deep to upset the Henley crew.
Molesey BC/Walbrook BC
As the only composite crew, Molesey BC/Walbrook BC is almost certainly one to watch out for as a bit of a wildcard. This crew contains ¾ of the Molesey quad that came 3rd at the National Schools’ Regatta and C. Ehrenreich, who placed 10th in her Walbrook quad in the same category. Given the speed of the Molesey quad and the decision to enter a composite, I think that this boat has the potential to do very well this weekend.
Headington School BC
Headington are known for producing fast boats all the way down to their J14s, so I don’t believe this boat will be any different, despite them not making many appearances in the quad this season. The depth of their squad was shown at Wallingford Regatta where their ‘A’ quad came third, even though some of their J16s were racing up in their top J18 boats. It will be interesting to see where they can finish this weekend and they can undoubtedly be up there fighting for the trophy.
Prediction
I think that Henley RC are the favourites this weekend and will be a tough side to beat but crews like Kingston, Molesey/Walbrook and Headington are all likely to be able to challenge them for the title. Other crews that I believe will have strong performances this weekend are Marlow RC, Putney HS and Kingston Grammar School.
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