When racing down the short 2.6k course, the quads out on the water on Saturday will not have to deal with steering as much as the average head race due to the unnaturally straight course. However, the one small adjustment will not be easy to make since the Nene is relatively narrow throughout the whole racing course. The division is small, with only three entries, two from Leys School Boat Club and one from Bedford Modern School Boat Club, so a podium spot is guaranteed for all participants. However, I don’t doubt the racing will be an interesting watch.
Leys School Boat Club
Although being quite an unknown club in terms of racing, the club occasionally attends certain events, like the Schools’ Head of the River Race last year, where the club placed last in their event, albeit in the school’s first eight-division. It is also unlikely that any of the people remain juniors to race this year, so a prediction of the strength of the Leys’ crews cannot be made.
Bedford Modern School Boat Club
Based on the Great Ouse River, Bedford Modern School Boat Club is also a pretty unknown club, but they do occasionally race at both local and national races. A Junior 18 quad raced at Head of the Nene last year, placing third out of four crews, but it is unlikely that any of the same crew members will be racing the event this year. The same crew raced at the Junior Sculling Regatta last year as well, placing last in their event. The club also sent athletes to GB trials last year, highlighting their determination to perform at the highest levels.
Prediction
While there isn’t much to go off of, I do think that Bedford Modern School Boat Club will place ahead of both Leys School Boat Club crews simply because the club has raced head races on the Nene before, so the coaching team will be able to provide their crew with more information on the technicalities of the race. However, there are no results to back this up, as these crews have never raced in this order before, so it is impossible to make a concrete prediction.
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