The final event at the end of a marathon weekend of racing with some clubs and athletes racing as many as 3 times over the course of this time. This particular event served up some fantastic racing in near perfect conditions, and defintely showed which crews are in the frame come the summer racing.
J18 Quads
Maidenhead followed up their record breaking row at Schools Head here in perfect fashion taking a commanding victory from Windsor Boys in second with a 5 second margin. It’s worth noting on run 1 there was only a second in it, Maidenhead did the damage on run 2 so this could lead to some close side by side come regatta season. Leander Club finished 3rd, back to their original crew combination after a late crew change for Schools Head. The 13 second gap to Windsor Boys may well be a bit of a worry to the Leander coaches and athketes, but Leander do tend to come good through regatta season. One final crew I want to mention are Great Marlow School, traditionally a club associated with Child Beale 8s, they have a really dangerous quad this season, demonstrated with a solid 5th place here, mixing it with the big names on the junior sculling scene.
As for the J18 girls quads, the Henley girls jumped back into a shiny new Filippi quad and blew the rest of the field away, rather like arch rivals Headington have been known to do in previous years. Schools Head winners Latymer Upper split the top quads from these two clubs, with Henley’s B crew finishing a remarkable 4th beating many A crews en route. Rather like St Pauls, Henley do look to hold all the cards on the Junior Women’s scene at the moment, but you can never write off the history and quality of programme at places such as Headington so Henley can’t afford to rest on their laurels.
J17 Quads
In the Open J17 event, Leander Club again flexed their muscle and demonstrated the depth of their junior squad as they took the J17 title. Marlow followed Leander home, with a mere 2 seconds between these crews. Walton, folding the pattern of these two crews in producing a storming run 2 followed into the bronze medal slot with a fairly healthy margin back to Claires Court School in fourth.
In terms of the girls results, Henley continued their domination of the junior women’s scenes with another victory, this time over Northwhich. Henley have recently had their junior girls squad strengthened by a number of arrivals from local clubs and they certainly seem to be the dominant force at the moment but it is fantastic to see crews from further afield performing at such a high level. Latymer Upper finished 3rd with Putney High School, with the input of Olympic silver medalist Jessica Eddie, a fantastic 4th. There can be no doubt Henley are the ones to catch come the summer.
J16 Quads
Claires Court, one of the emerging powers of junior men’s Sculling took a slightly suprise win in the open J16 quads winning by a reasonable margin from Walton and Henley who took a share of second place, in what is always a well fought category. In 4th, possibly somewhat disappointed were Sir William Borlase, who won at Hampton and many tipped for the victory here. Despite this, it’s great to see a Borlase quad pushing the top end of the quads again, after some tough years since the departure of Robin Dowell. Nonetheless, these crews will all think they can push on for even more speed come the summer.
As for the women’s quads I may as well use the copy and paste function, as it was taken by Henley again, this time in the sweetest way possible, over the Headington crew. The margin was comfortable, if not overwhelming, and both crews will know any result is possible over 2k in the summer. Surbiton completed the medals in this event, a mere 2 seconds shy of Headington. One result of particular note was that of Glasgow Academey, finishing 6th. Again a crew from a little further afield, but one from a club with rich recent history, and one that could certainly be in and around the metalwork come the summer.
Other winners
WJ15 4x+ was won by Henley RC
WJ15 8x+ was won by Latymer Upper
OJ15 4x+ was won by Tideway Scullers
OJ15 8x+ was won by Walton
WJ14 4x+ was won by Maidenhead RC
WJ14 8x+ was shared by Nottingham Union and Lady Eleanor Holles
OJ14 4x+ was won by Trentham BC
OJ14 8x+ was won by Norwich School
The Victor Ludorum went to Henley RC
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