National Schools’ Regatta is for many the largest and most exciting race that they will do this year, and many a rower’s season will culminate here, particularly at the J16 level. Therefore it is shaping up to be one of the most competitive events, testing these young athletes’ ability to stay cool, calm and collected under pressure.
St Pauls’ School
St Pauls’ is a school that churns out quality crew after quality crew and their current J16 first eight is no exception. They won at Schools’ Head and at Wallingford Regatta over all the crews that will be attending this event. Additionally, with two trialists, Jacopo Tans and Walter Daffey, they will have some very good oarsmen on board who I am sure will be leading the crew with their extra, but crucial, experience. Given their track record this year, I would be surprised if this crew came away from National Schools’ as anything but the winners, however only time will tell.
King’s College School
After a tough end to their J15 season, coming eighth overall at NSR 2023 following a strong third place finish at Schools’ Head, KCS clearly felt that they had something to prove — and prove something they have. With a second place finish at Schools’ Head, a more recent second place at Wallingford Regatta and a win at the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta, this crew is a definite contender for a spot on the podium. On a good day, this crew has the potential to overturn St Paul’s, as surprisingly shown by the difference in times during the heats at Wallingford, where KCS went two seconds faster than SPS!
Westminster School
Another crew with some great results to their name, Westminster will be looking to start punching up with the top two crews, KCS and SPS. They have come fourth at two major races this season, Schools’ Head and Wallingford: however, at Ghent Spring Regatta, they showed their real speed, beating both senior crews and the KCS crew. I think they have the capability to do well, however this has only been shown once, so it is unlikely that they will be able to overturn their two greatest rivals.
Radley College
After a superb J15 season, coming first at National Schools’ Regatta 2023, Radley has unfortunately not matched the results this year: they still performed promisingly though, coming fifth at Schools’ Head and third at Wallingford, and so this crew will be hungry to taste success again. If they are able to reproduce a row like last years National Schools’, it will be an admirable achievement, though I think they have been slightly outclassed by other crews in their division.
Other entrants include Hampton, Latymer and Bedford, all strong crews — however, due to a lack of winning results this year, I don’t think that they will competing for the medals and instead will be competing for the top five. Due to their placement at Wallingford, I think that Latymer will be most likely to make an impact on the final.
Predictions
Due to their dominance so far this year, I think that St Paul’s will be victorious with KCS close behind. Radley and Westminster will probably be battling it out for the bronze medal but both have the potential to challenge KCS. Latymer and either Hampton or Bedford are my predictions for the final two places in the A final.
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