As the sun set over Dorney Lake on Sunday, answers to questions being asked since Schools’ Head finally revealed themselves, and the junior rowing community was left with one of the best weekends of racing it has seen in a long time. From the moment the Wallingford RC J15 4x+ paddled through the start for their time trial on 10 am Friday morning, the action never truly stopped until Latymer Upper crossed the line on Sunday in Ch4+. We are going to be looking back at some of the stand-out performances, and also the surprise ones.
Beginning on the Friday, while the majority of competitors were still stuck in the classroom eagerly awaiting the weekend, the J14 and J15s racing this day were handed the new challenge of the full 2km distance as opposed to the 1km in previous years. Radley College managed to hold off a late charge from Shiplake College in the main event of the day, J14 8x+. Elsewhere, a notable mention should go to the Radley College J14 2nd 8x+ for making it a clean sweep for their club in this boat class, also finishing in a time quicker than the majority of competitors in J14 1st 8x+. This feat was also achieved by Surbiton High School in the girl’s category of each boat class.
Moving on to the big day, where all eyes were glued to the Ch 8+ time trial. When Radley College stormed to victory in both the time trial and their semi-final, it seemed as if they were the ones to beat with Eton, Shiplake, and Shrewsbury left to fight it out for the remaining medals. St Paul’s had other ideas. Despite an 8th place in the time trial and a missing junior world champion and member of last year’s crew in the form of Oliver Parish, they bounced back to send shockwaves across the banks and to those watching the livestream at home. After storming out of the blocks in the A final, they already had a half length advantage by 250m. From then on, they continued to move away, and before you knew it, the late charge on the orders of Shiplake’s cox Jacob Kirby was not enough to stop St Paul’s from taking a third successive win in this category, and no doubt the hardest one of the three. The same level of excitement goes for G Ch8+ as well, where Henley RC were favourites to win ,and their initial statement of a 5 second victory in the time trial all but settled the result. Or so we thought, until Antony Smith’s LEH decided they were not going to let that stand. LEH turned around their time trial and semi-final second place against Henley RC to win the event, with Henley RC second and Marlow RC finishing the medal positions. It was not all doom and gloom for Henley RC, however, as their Championship Boys Quad proved. With Leander Club defeating all before them leading up to the event, Henley RC managed to sneak the smallest of victories in the time trial and carry this momentum on to the A final where their move through Leander in the 2nd 500m was enough to take them to victory and shake things up looking on towards the Fawley Challenge Cup.
On the Sunday, the trademark Dorney crosswind finally made its appearance, and the rain fell. This did not stop St Paul’s and Eton from carrying their victories in Ch4- and Ch4+ respectively on from last year into this year. Henley RC had certainly used the previous day’s racing as fuel to carry them to victory in both G Ch 4x and G Ch 4-, who knows what Henley Women’s Regatta and the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup has in store for us this year? Leander Club made it an impressive one-two in Ch2x, and Julian van Galderen continued his fantastic season in the scull to win Ch 1x ahead of Alex Milne of Leander Club.
Looking onwards, there is no doubt that this has been and will go on to be one of the fastest fields of racing we have seen across the board for a long time, particularly with the A final of Ch 8+ having all crews going sub 6 minutes, and for some it is the first time in their history as is the case with King’s College School. At Metropolitan Regatta this weekend, we are already going to see many crews returning to Dorney to seek revenge over their rivals and settle the scores. We are going to be previewing it all, stay tuned!
List of all winners:
J14 1st 8x+ Radley College
J14 2nd 8x+ Radley College
J15 4x+ Windsor Boys’ School
J14 4x+ Kingston RC
J15 4+ Kingston RC
G J14 1st 8x+ Surbiton High School
G J14 2nd 8x+ Surbiton High School
G J15 4x+ Trentham Boat Club
G J14 4x+ Henley RC
G J15 4+ Kingston RC
Ch 8+ St Paul’s School
Non Ch 8+ Monmouth School
2nd 8+ Radley College
3rd 8+ Eton College
J16 8+ Westminster School
J16 2nd 8+ Eton College
J15 8+ Norwich School
J15 2nd 8+ St Paul’s School
Ch 4x Henley RC
2nd 4x Leander Club
Non Ch 4+ Westminster School
J16 4+ Walton RC
G Ch 8+ LEH
G 2nd 8+ Henley RC
G J16 1st 8+ Henley RC
G J16 2nd 8+ King’s School Chester
G J15 1st 8+ Nottingham and Union RC
G J15 2nd 8+ Sir William Perkins’s School
G Non-Ch 4+ Kingston RC
G J16 4+ Enniskillen Royal BC
G Ch 2x Gloucester Hartpury
G Ch 1x Molly Curry, Coleraine Grammar School
Ch 4- St Pauls’ School
Ch 4+ Eton College
Ch 2x Leander Club
Ch 2- Radley College
Ch 1x Julian van Gelderen, Windsor Boys’ School
J16 4- Westminster School
J16 4x Tideway Scullers School
J16 2x Exeter RC
G Ch 4x Henley RC
G Ch 4- Henley RC
G Ch 2- Kingston RC
G J16 2x Headington School
G J16 4x Henley RC
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