JRN are delighted to announce that Hinksey Sculling School are our Underdog of the Year.
Hinksey burst onto the scene as genuine contenders for top titles in the winter, finishing just a few seconds behind Headington at the Women’s Head of the River and repeating the feat again at the Schools’ Head of the River. Their crowning moment came in a brilliant final at the National Schools’ Regatta, where they took a delicately-balanced race by the scruff of its neck to win the girl’s championship eight trophy. Although they could not repeat the feat through the Henley series, such quality from a community rowing program with next to no depth has to be applauded.
Bodo Schulenburg, Director of Rowing at Hinksey, commented: “From my point of view, it’s been a project that’s been building for four years at this stage, with a good overlap of returners each year which helped push up the standard incrementally. Our squad has always been very small, with never more than nine or ten girls available each year including cox, so to get them to the top against programmes that can field at least two eights per age group is special. The underdog mentality is only helpful to a point before it becomes a hindrance. They had to develop the expectations and standards and believe that they belong at the top, which hasn’t worked often this season but certainly did in the final of the National Schools’ Regatta. That came after a three hour-long heart-to-heart chat after the semis, which was not a good performance from us. We’re still upset that we missed out on the big prize due to Covid but glad that we could put the Hinksey name on the National Schools’ trophy at least.”
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