JRN

The Fours Head of the River 2023 – Open Junior Quads Preview

The Fours Head of the River, put simply, is a gruelling test of might – both physical and mental. As autumn bridges the gap between the memories of regatta season and the tumultuous full-swing of winter, Fours Head falls upon a time of the year where the Tideway starts to become more temperamental and difficult to manage — especially in smaller racing shells. With that, 46 crews are to race in the Open Junior 4x category this year, but now to suggest an answer to the question on everybody’s lips : Who will traverse the 6.8k from Chiswick to Putney the fastest?

Leander Club

Leander’s crew of Eaton, White, Meredith and Richards will be looking to protect their title (and indeed record) in this event, and will certainly feel confident in doing so. This crew is armed with international sculling experience supplied by what seems to be their talisman, Richards, who was the single sculler for GB at junior worlds, and placed second at the Vesta Scullers’ Head this year. In recent years, Leander Club has grown to become synonymous with success in the Junior Men’s Quads category, consistently putting out crews of the highest quality. A strong result at Fours Head will therefore help them set a high standard that the other quads will be looking to match for the rest of the year. Additionally, Leander’s very impressive squad depth is shown by their second quad, also being of very high quality. Apatu, Blackbourn, Al Quahef and Denning will have a serious hunger about them to put pressure on not only the other Leander quad, but the rest of the strong competition.

The Windsor Boys’ School Boat Club

Windsor Boys’ School are renowned for their speed in the quad. Mark Wilkinson has clearly discovered an extremely well drilled programme for his athletes, as evidenced by their three wins in the Fawley Challenge Cup at Henley over only the last six years. Additionally, the lineup of Harlow, Downie, Wellington and Chute will be very confident in their speed, given that they won the recent Head of the Charles Regatta, driving an extremely convincing 30 seconds between them and second place. This is also extremely impressive given that this crew is remarkably young, including two sixteen-year-olds. It’s no secret that these four know how to move a quad extremely quickly, and that they are seen as formidable competition in this field. If they can replicate their impressive performance at the HOCR, there is no reason why we wouldn’t see them take the title from Leander this year. If you happen to be lining the banks of the Thames this year, they’ll be one to watch closely.

St. Paul’s School Boat Club

St. Paul’s School are a club very well known for the consistency in their quality of sweeping, perhaps putting them in the position to prove themselves as equal in sculling. Their crew of Peerless, Wild, Karadogan and Wolfensberger are all quality scullers, with the latter two winning their categories in the Scullers’ Head, and the former two finishing in top five positions. But we haven’t seen these boys all together in a quad yet. These doubts, however, are somewhat put to rest when we consider the experience of this crew – one of very few junior crews in which every athlete has represented Great Britain, so they will have experienced the very highest quality of racing. Another factor that helps is that based on what we know about their ergs from last year, it is safe to assume that they will be supplying a great amount of wattage. In short, Paul’s seem a double edged sword – if they can row a quad with the same as they can row an eight or a four, then I wouldn’t doubt a win in this category or even a top ten finish overall.

Marlow Rowing Club

Marlow are also certainly contenders for this year’s Fours Head. Last year, they showcased an impressive display of squad depth, with their first and second quads placing second and third respectively. I am not sure whether these two crews were matched, or if they just have remarkable depth, but either way, that puts them in a massively positive position ahead of this year’s event. This crew looks very exciting. Fomin in the bow seat will be matched by a bulletproof rhythm from Anderson at stroke, all of which will be seamlessly tied together by some serious leg drive from the middle pair of Sanders and Cooke. These four are also set to start second in the order, meaning they’ll see the Leander crew setting off some seconds before them, and treat them like a target for the entire 7k stretch. Additionally, as previously established, their second quad will be one to watch. Unfortunately they start 36th in the order, perhaps not giving them the cleanest water imaginable, but I’m sure this crew will attack the day with tenacity and a real drive to replicate the justice they did to their boat club last year.

Other Entries

While the crews mentioned above are all certainly heavy-hitters, there is a wealth of quality throughout the entire category. Tideway Scullers’ School are a very well established boat club, and have made a decent start to this season. However, there is still an absence of Regan, and it didn’t seem their day at the Head of the Charles: that being said, this gives them all the more reason to use the Fours Head as an opportunity to bounce back. Wycliffe also start nearer to the top of the pack, indicating that they are thought to go well down the course this year, however I’d have liked to see more of this combination to be able to make any clear judgements on their speed. Still – they are not to be counted out, as they consistently produce strong quads.

Predictions

Rowing is a sport in which one must always go with their gut — I find the same to be true for predicting it. While sculling purists may doubt the following prediction, this is what I think: