Rutherford Head on the 1st of December will be a difficult race on the Tyne and so it will be interesting to see which clubs take the top places in the WJ18 8+ category. There will be Yarm School BC, Tyne ARC, Queen Elizabeth HS BC, Chester le Street ARC and York City RC all racing in this event.
Yarm School BC
This club has some good sweep experience after having entered a CH G2- at National Schools’ Regatta last year to achieve a 4th place. Sarah Portsmouth raced in the stroke seat of this crew and is racing again this weekend; therefore, she will have some good experience in finding a good rhythm that will be key for success. The sweep experience will also be essential for the athletes to develop their speed in the eights. Therefore, it will be interesting if these two aspects can be combined to form a strong result.
Chester le Street ARC
The athletes from this club have some good strength going into this event after having competed in the Schools Indoor Rowing Competition with two girls in the top ten. This strength will be essential for success in racing in the eights down this course. However, it will be interesting to see whether this strength can be translated to speed in the eight as they have had little experience racing in some of the bigger events.
York City RC
This particular rowing club has managed to make some good developments in the smaller boats which will really aid theirperformance in this eights category. For example, at National Schools Regatta last year in the CH G2x the York City crew managed a 5th position in the A final proving the strengths of the coaches and athletes in sweep boats. This has been carried over into the winter season with girls competing in the WJ18 2x category at York Small Boats Head where they achieved a second-place position.
Predictions
We expect to see the likes of Yarm School BC, Chester le Street ARC, and York City RC battling for the top places at Rutherford Head this weekend. In order to succeed they crew will need an experienced cox to steer the difficult course as well as high levels of strength and fitness to ensure a strong performance over the 4.5km course.
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