As the School’s Head of the River draws nearer the WJ16 8x crews have been training hard and preparing for the biggest head race for schools. There are 9 crews entered into the category, all of which are highly competitive and have been achieving some strong results on the river at the end of 2017 and start of 2018. It will be an exciting race for all and will be a really good event for the girls to see how they rank compared to their competition.
Headington School Oxford Boat Club
Headington’s WJ16 eights don’t seem to have had much time out on the water racing recently so perhaps they are saving their best performance for Monday. It will be a good opportunity to see how they compare to the other girls crews in this highly competitive event.
St Pauls Girls School Boat Club
St Pauls seem to have very little in terms of results, however have recently placed 5th at Hampton Head 4s and 8s. This result should put them in good stead regarding the opposing boats, and it will be a good opportunity for them to get in some good competitive racing.
Lady Eleanor Holles Boat Club
The LEH eight’s success at Quintin Head in autumn it has given us a clear understanding of what they are capable of. Winning the category confidently against 2 other boats, which included the Emanuel eight, proves to us they are in a strong position coming into this race. Before Quintin Head, there was a sense of ambiguity surrounding their potential as they had very little proof regarding what they were capable of. They proved themselves again placing a respectable 3rd at Hampton 4s and 8s head recently. These two results combined should stand them in strong completion for Mondays race.
Henley Rowing Club
Henley appear to be quite an experienced crew having won gold at the Junior Inter-regional regatta last April in the J16 category, despite being made up of majority J15’s at the time. While it is apparent that there will have been crew changes since then, I imagine that this strong crew base will be able to pull off strong results. At Hamptons 4s and 8s they came a very close 2nd to Surbiton High School Boat Club. As a prestigious club that always produce strong results it will be exciting to see where they place at Schools Head against the tough competition.
Surbiton High School Boat Club
Surbiton seem to have very little results regarding their WJ16 rowing squad, despite this, they have recently come out of the blue with a win at Hampton 4s and 8s head. This has since shown to everyone that they are a strong crew and have been putting a lot of training into this eight. Monday’s race should be interesting to see how they stack up compared to other crews in the category, and whether it was just a one off win or not.
Godolphin & Latymer School Boat Club
Godolphin and Latymer School appear to have had a strong season in fours this year. Their first visible race in an eight this season, they raced at Quintin head in the J18 8+ category. While they placed last in that category, their timing places them in a good place to receive good results and at the following race at Hamptons 4s and 8s they placed a very respectable 4th amongst the very strong competition and also was good to see them doing well in their age category.
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