With only four entries, the J16 Coxless Quad event isn’t the biggest I’ve ever seen, however there is still the potential for some interesting racing when they take to the water on Saturday. First off is a crew from St. Paul’s, entered under the name ‘Mattimoe’. Coming from such a prestigious system, as well as having boys from last year’s J15CH8+ winning crew at National Schools’ should make this crew particularly quick, so long as they can cope with the transition to sculling. There are also two crews from Tiffin, making up half of the event. The crews are entered as ‘Wong’ and ‘Saywell’, who were both in Tiffin’s J15 quad last season, which failed to make a huge impression on the rest of the competition. This would suggest the two crews are fairly matched however, so they’ll certainly be looking to take each other on. The fourth and final crew is from Walton and entered under the name ‘Wilkinson’, who was part of a relatively impressive J15 double last season, with a 5th place at National Schools’. I expect them to have a decent amount of speed moving into the quads then, so this crew is certainly worth watching.
Prediction
Although the other crews competing will still be of a reasonable standard, I can’t see any of them challenging St. Paul’s, simply due to their successes last season. I expect them to win the event, however I doubt Walton will be far off – I just can’t see them having the strength in depth that St. Paul’s have. They’ll follow in second place, with the quads from Tiffin in third and fourth, as lacking the strength and pedigree of the other crews is likely to hold them back.
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