National Schools’ Regatta 2019 – Junior 16 Second Eights

It’s finally that time of year again – the pinnacle of the season for the vast majority of these crews – the National Schools’ Regatta 2019. The J16 2^nd 8+ has a fairly slim entry this year, with only seven crews battling it out for a coveted gold medal on the waters of Eton Dorney. This event is now the 2^nd tier of J16 8’s, after the merging of J16 Champ and 1^st 8’s at last year’s event, so should provide some exciting racing as always. As far as I can see, it appears that all seven crews will compete in a time trial first but only for choice of lanes, as they will all proceed directly to a seven lane A-final later on Saturday afternoon.

Eton College 

As they often do, Eton’s J16 squad has made a massive step up in performance terms from their unimpressive J15 season, with their J16 1^st crew recently winning their event at Schools’ Head by 3 seconds. They have two eights entered into this event, both their J16 2^nd and 3^rd8’s, who should be extremely competitive and will be fighting for a medal on their home water. Their J16 2^nd8+ (Eton College A on the entries), now stroked by Clement Toussaint, absolutely dominated their category at Schools Head, beating Westminster’s J16 2^nd 8+ by over 20 seconds. Their J16 3^rd 8+ wasn’t far behind, placing 6^th in the same event. Although it appears there has been some switching around of athletes between the 2 boats, I expect Eton to be on the podium at the least, and they are most definitely a favourite for the gold medal. 

Bedford School

Bedford have one crew entered, stroked by Henry Tyrer, and I think they should be fairly competitive, if not possibly seeking a podium finish. This crew placed 4^th in J16 2^nd 8+ at Schools’ Head, 40 seconds behind the same Eton boat they will race in this event. However, since then they have made some crew changes, with the stroke man from Schools’ Head 8+ now sitting at 2. Their coaches will be hoping that since that fairly convincing defeat on the tideway, these changes will help them gain the speed they need to challenge Eton, along with the experience gained from their April camp in Sarnen. 

Westminster School

Westminster have also decided to only enter one crew into the event, but these athletes will be hungry for a gold medal, having been defeated on their home water at Schools’ Head, forcing them to come away with a silver medal. I’m sure they’ll have been working hard since then to turn that 20 second deficit around and to beat Eton on the Saturday. However, with very little racing having occurred since Schools’ Head due to the Easter break it’s hard to say whether they’ll manage this- but they are known as a club with pretty great depth within squads, and their J16 1^st 8+ is very fast, so who knows what could happen. 

Radley College

Unfortunately, this year the Radley J16 squad do not look particularly strong, with their J16 1^st 8+ only managing 9^th at Schools’ Head, and this J16 2^nd 8+ taking 5^th in their event, a minute down on Eton. Therefore, it doesn’t look like this crew will be challenging for a medal- but Radley are often a fairly unknown quantity at this time of year, with a knack of peaking late in the season for Henley. 

Hampton School

This crew look to be a similar speed to Westminster, placing 3^rd in J16 2^nd 8’s at Schools’ Head, only 2 seconds behind them, and 25 seconds behind the winners Eton. They have also made some crew changes, drawing from the vast numbers that Hampton tend to have within their squads- the stroke from Schools’ Head now sits at 5, with Saahil Dhawan now occupying the stroke seat. This crew has already raced at in this combination- producing a fairly speedy 06:43.1 at Nottingham City Regatta, which is similar to the times of the lower end J16 1^st 8’s, so I think they’ll be hoping for a medal.

Abingdon School

This crew from Abingdon is by far the most unknown out of all 7 entries- due to them scratching at Schools’ Head providing very few major results to stack them against the other crews. However, at the recent Bedford Amateur Regatta, they beat Bedford’s J16 1^st 8+ to make the final into an Abingdon J16 1^st 8+ vs Abingdon J16 2^nd8+. Although the 2^nd 8+ did lose, their qualifying times were similar and this proves that they have some serious speed, making them another firm favourite.

Predictions

It’s very hard to say at this point who will come away with the medals in this category, but I’m predicting that there will be a dogfight down the track between Eton, Westminster and Abingdon, withEton 1^st, Abingdon 2^nd and Westminster 3^rd. However, I could easily be completely wrong, with Hampton, Bedford and Radley eager to prove me so, but either way it should be both very close and exciting. 

MarginalGainz

About The Author

MarginalGainz

See author's posts