Reading University Head of the River is an approximately 4.6km course downstream from the former Roebuck public house to near Caversham Bridge. The WJ16 category will be very competitive and the results will ultimately be down to their abilities to maintain a good rhythm alongside steering a good line through the two bends that they will encounter. The likes of Marlow RC, Lady Eleanor Holles BC, Bedford Modern School BC, Sir William Perkin’s School RC and Queen Anne’s BC will be competing.
Marlow RC
In previous years, this rowing club has had some strong successes in this category including a 2nd place at Henley women’s and then representation of GB at the GB v France match in the WJ16 4x- category. This now J16 squad is already very strong as last year at National Schools’ Regatta they finished in 3rd place in the W15 4x A final and so if this strength is combined with the skills of the older years then these athletes will be very strong competitors.
Lady Eleanor Holles BC
The strength of this development squad has been growing which was clearly seen at Hammersmith Head recently. At this event the Lady Eleanor Holles WJ16 8+ finished in 2nd place to Marlow RC. This shows the strength of only eight athletes in the squad and so it will be interesting to see whether they will be able to transfer their speed into the smaller boats for this event.
Sir William Perkin’s School RC
This junior squad have had seen some good improvements so far in this spring season. The most recent of which came at Hammersmith Head approximately 1 week ago where they finished in 3rd place with a time of 13:17.3 which was considerably behind 2nd place (Latymer Upper School) but the time beat the likes of Marlow RC, St Pauls Girls and Putney High School. This impressive result shows that they will be a key competitor in this category.
We expect to see the likes of Marlow RC, Lady Eleanor Holles BC and Sir William Perkin’s School RC to be competing for the top places in this event. However, it will be a very competitive category with 7 separate crews entered with 6 different clubs racing.
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