Quintin Head 2020 – J18 Preview

image credit @allmarkone

For most of the crews racing on Saturday, Quintin Head will be the first event back after a long and quite possibly fairly placid Christmas holiday. However, many will also have been on a short winter training camp to tune up their crews as we move ever closer to the Summer and 2k racing- perhaps giving them a marked advantage in the early stages of this new year. Quintin Head follows the Boat Race Course, in the opposite direction to the Schools’ and Men’s Heads, running from just shy of Hammersmith Bridge to the White Davit, upstream of Chiswick Bridge. This year sees twenty J18 crews tackle the course, and although a lot of the big names are racing, it is worth bearing in mind that many of them will be racing in matched and mixed eights, as opposed to a 1^st and 2^nd eight.

Westminster

As per usual for big events on the tideway, Westminster have put an entry in- comprised of two eights under the names ‘Red’ and ‘White’. That means that the two are likely to be a mixture of 1^st and 2^nd eight athletes, with the coaches probably trying to gauge speed, compare athletes, but also not give too much away to the opposition. Westminster spent their Christmas camp Cross-Country Skiing in Vermont, alongside their October water Camp in Sarnen – and although this should leave them well prepared, due to the vast number of event cancelations last term because of flooding, it is really hard to gauge anyone’s speed in the eight. However, going back to Four’s Head their top athletes were in the quad – so perhaps their focus is not entirely on sweep boats. They should do well- but perhaps not win overall.

Shiplake

Shiplake have been grinding out the mileage in Seville over the break, and have come back to enter three eights into Quintin. However, with three of their higher level athletes – Frederico Focosi, Tom Boret and Danny Mulligan in the stroke seats- it looks like they’re probably racing matched eights of some kind. Like a lot of clubs- Shiplake have barely raced in big boats this season, with results at Pairs and Scullers Heads being really the only ones to go on. However, looking at those races, they clearly have an exceptionally strong group of athletes this year, so will be looking to be putting as many of these three crews as possible in the top five.

Radley

The boys from Radley stayed closer to home over the break- making it as far as Reading for their short training camp- which will put them in good stead for these early races. They’ve put two entries into Quintin Head this year- under Pearson and Nielsen– and although I’m not 100% sure, they may also be matched eights. Unlike many other clubs, Radley have actually managed to get out and race in the eight this season- with a 14^th place at the Head of the Charles over in the States back in October. They also raced at Eton’s invite only BASHER event a few days ago, with their first crew placing fifth behind two Eton and two Abingdon crews. Although they’re likely to be quick, I think this result suggests that they may not be quite as quick as the likes of St Paul’s and Shiplake at this point in the season.

Hampton

Hampton have seemingly been a boat club on the decline in recent years- with an extremely disappointing 2018/19 season ending in a B-Final finish at NSR and a Wednesday ending to their Henley campaign. However, they appear to have picked themselves back up- doing pretty well at BASHER at the weekend, coming in only 5 seconds behind Radley.

St Paul’s

This is the second crew entry from St Paul’s, with their first eight racing in the top Championship category alongside club crews. It is therefore unlikely to feature at the top of the ranking, but expect to see this crew go after some first eight blood on Sunday.

Other Crews

 Aside from the dominant crews mentioned above, there are entries from several other clubs. St Edward’s Oxford have entered a pair of eights, as have Bedford Modern, with St George’s entering an additional three crews. Latymer, Reading Blue Coats, Emanuel and (surprisingly) 1863 BC, have all also entered an eight a piece. However realistically I think that none of them are going to be quite up to the speed of the big players.

It should also be mentioned the King’s College School have entered the Championship category alongside St Paul’s. Although this means they are not alongside their school-based competition, times will be compared nonetheless. KCS are building momentum with the majority of last year’s school-record-breaking crew returning this season with national vests, shown with their dominant win of the 4- category at Fours’ Head. Expect them to start their Tideway eights run with a bold statement.

Predictions

With so little to go on due to race cancellations in late 2019, this is a really hard race to predict, but if St Paul’s put out their 1^st 8+, I think they will probably win, followed by Shiplake, with Radley and Westminster scrapping it out for third.

MarginalGainz

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