The biggest race of the head season is finally upon us. In one week, 356 crews will be lining up at Chiswick Bridge, preparing to give it everything down the brutal 7.5km stretch of the tideway. Most of these crews are British, although there are some European clubs entered. However all entered crews have one thing in common; this is what they have been training for since September. Some crews will be looking to medal, whilst others will just be looking to do themselves and their clubs proud, and this means there is going to be a serious amount of competitive racing, with some extremely fast times being produced by the most determined crews.
Leading off the pack in the Junior Schools’ Coxed fours is Monmouth School Rowing Club. With Monmouth’s junior coxed four placing fourth in this category last season, and with them being the only returning club out of the crews placing in the top four, they have been awarded the privilege of setting off first in this category next Monday on the Tideway. This not only means that they will be able to push off the rest of the field all the way from Chiswick bridge down to Putney, but they will also receive the least wash out of the crews entered in this category, which is a huge advantage when it comes to knocking off an extra couple of seconds from your overall time. Monmouth will certainly be looking to improve upon last years result, and will be looking to achieve a medal, which isn’t an unrealistic target.
Following Monmouth and therefore chasing them down the course will be George Heriot’s School Rowing Club. This club is usually unheard of in the junior rowing scene, however they managed to place a respectable 5th in this category at last year’s event and were only 3 seconds behind Monmouth school along a shortened course. This crew will therefore be aiming to at least close the margin between them and Monmouth School, if they aren’t able to catch up or overtake them. As this club is usually unheard of, it is hard to predict where they will be able to place in this category, and whilst I would see it unlikely that they will take a medal home from this event, they could prove themselves to be the underdogs and place an extremely quick and unexpected time in this category, securing themselves a top 3 finish.
Setting off third in this category is the junior four from Canottieri Olona 1894, which is a rowing club located in Milan in Italy. It is excellent to see that this event is expanding and that not only crews from all over Britain, but crews from the rest of Europe are entering this event and are coming to compete on British waters. As this is an international crew, it is impossible to predict how fast they will be in this category, however they will undoubtedly be looking to do themselves and their club proud by finishing with as fast a time as they can possibly achieve. It must be said though, this crew will be unlikely to have ever rowed on the Tideway before and therefore this could potentially cost them precious seconds if they don’t navigate the course with the best possible line. I think it will be very interesting to see how this crew performs as everyone else is unlikely to even have a slight indication as to how fast this crew is going to be.
Looking at the rest of the draw, the crews which are likely to post the fastest times in this category will be starting off in the middle of the field. One of the crews I am expecting to have a top three finish is the crew from Molesey Boat Club. Over the past couple of seasons, Molesey have proved themselves to be champions in sculling events, however, recently they have also showed an incredible amount of depth within their squad and shown that they are able to produce strong results in sweep boats too, with them entering an eight into national schools’ regatta last season. Molesey also have a championship quad entered into Schools’ Head, and whilst I believe that the quad will be the prioritised crew as Molesey are predominately a sculling club, the four will also be looking to take home a medal within their category and defeat their competition. I think Molesey are extremely likely to obtain a medal in this category, however if they are aiming for gold, Molesey will have a tough fight against Winchester College Boat Club and Latymer Upper School Boat Club. Winchester College are one of the bigger names within the junior rowing scene and historically they have produced very strong results, however for the last couple of seasons they haven’t performed as well as everyone would expect at Schools’ Head. Last year, their championship eight finished 11th place; a worse than expected result for the club. They have therefore made a tactical decision to split their eight up into a quad and a four this year, and this decision means they are more likely to be able to secure a medal at the event this year. However, Winchester will definitely have to put up a fight if they are going to be able to achieve this medal, especially against the likes of Latymer Upper School Boat Club. With Latymer also having a championship eight entered this year, this four is likely to be their second crew, saying that, it is still likely to be extremely quick. Latymer have already proved themselves in fours this season, achieving an extremely strong 10th place finish in J18 fours at Fours Head of the River last Autumn and while I think they may well struggle in the championship eights category due to some fierce competition, I think that the amount of talent they have in their squad this year will allow them to succeed in obtaining a top 3 finish in the junior fours category at Schools’ Head next Monday.
It is also worth giving a mention to Walton Rowing Club. Walton are usually well-known for producing strong results in small boats, particularly singles, doubles and pairs, so it will therefore be interesting too see how this club comes together in a coxed four. If they have been able to make a successful transition from small boats to a larger crew boat, then they will potentially have a chance of placing towards the top end of the category on the tideway next Monday.
Overall, I would expect Molesey Boat Club and Latymer Upper School Boat Club to be obtaining gold and silver medals, in either order, with the crews from Winchester College Boat Club, Walton Rowing Club and Monmouth School Rowing Club fighting it out for the bronze medal position.
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