Thirty-eight entries make the Championship Girl’s Singles a highly competitive event, as it always is, one which we trust to provide us with delicious racing if all else fails. Many of these scullers are from smaller programmes, often those without enough members to race in bigger boats. But that doesn’t mean we should underestimate them, as they’ve spent seasons in the single, cultivating a killer mindset and the technique to go with it too. The bigger names are well-known, have been around for a while, and looking to go out with a bang in their last year or two of racing on the junior circuit, and at the (in)famous National Schools’ Regatta.
Latymer Upper School Boat Club
A recent transfer to the Latymer Upper programme from Barn Elms Rowing Club, assuming she joined at 16+ making her a J17 this year – Guilia Riley. After competing in this same category at National Schools’ last year as a J16 and coming seventh, in the astonishing A-final where the prowess of Briony Wood was revealed to us, a year older and a year stronger Guilia will be back for blood. Having just won Wallingford in the WJ18 1x, by 11 seconds, Guilia’s recent transfer to a boat club with perhaps more resources to support her lone-wolf adventures in the single is paying off. Keep your eyes peeled for the girl newly-in-blue at the weekend!
Tideway Scullers School
A club that seems like it has always been around, but is starting to really making waves on the junior women’s sculling circuit is Tideway Scullers. After winning the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup at last year’s Henley Royal Regatta in the comeback of the season, everyone seems to be keeping one eye on the girls in red and yellow. This year it seems TSS are keeping their cards to their chests, holding out on showing off their quad for the season at the National Schools’ Regatta, and instead opting to enter a girl’s double and single comprised of members of their top boat instead. This could even be in an attempt to collect more silverware, something we know that Georgia Allen in the single is indeed capable of after winning Ghent International Spring Regatta and the Junior Sculling Regatta.
Glasgow Academy Rowing Club
A name that by now, for anyone even half-clued into the junior women’s circuit, should mean something: Briony Wood. Starting her 22/23 season at 14 years old, and then going on to win the girl’s championship singles at the National Schools’ Regatta sounds like something out of a movie. If that’s not enough, let me remind you she won by just under ten seconds, and after that showed us her sweep skills when she won Henley Women’s Regatta in the coxed four. Now for a mix of disciplines, she won the WJ15 1x, WJ18 1x, and WJ15 4x at the British Rowing Junior Championships, before going on to win the GB-France match in the single, something normally reserved for J16s. So, with all that under her belt, and after multiple wins and close-second places at Ghent Regatta this year, Briony is undoubtedly in an excellent position to win the National Schools’ Regatta 2024.
Prediction
From that last paragraph, it might be clear who I predict to take the win; Briony Wood. We must remember though that this is the single scull category and the unpredictability of this gladiatorial contest means anything can happen. I think the silver will be between Georgia Allen and Guilia Riley and I put my money on Georgia just due to her experience. Regardless of the results, one thing that is definitely clear is that we’re in for some tight racing!
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