Spring has officially graced us with its presence; the clocks have moved, the days are getting lighter, and the first full head season in three years has wrapped up. Not only have we seen the usual crowd of races, but there have also been shifts within the British Rowing leadership team, and last week the Boat Race made it back to the Tideway once more.
To start within February, we saw the appointments of Vincent Gaillard and Andrew Randell as the New World Rowing Executive Director and GB women’s Head Coach, respectively. Both of them bring a wealth of experience to the positions. Andrew Randell made the move over from Australia, where he has been coaching national crews since 1995, notably the Aussie women’s quad that got bronze in Tokyo. His appointment meant that the British Rowing had officially filled all its high-performance vacancies. Only time will tell about how successful everyone will prove to be.
The early months of the year also saw a new wave of retirements, with Jack Beaumont announcing his step back from rowing. Along with the inimitable Hamish Bond and Matthew Tarrant, who also officially retired this year. They will all leave substantial gaps in the rowing world, and we wish them well!
Racing wise, we had a packed schedule that did not disappoint; BUCS Head, Schools’ Head of the River, Women’s Head of the River, Head of the River and the Junior Scullery Head all happened within three weeks of each other, and each one brought some excellent racing.
At BUCS, Newcastle, Durham and Edinburgh came out on top as the top three universities across the board. Although they were absent at BUCS, there were outstanding performances from Oxford Brookes at both WeHORR and HORR.
Similarly, the Henley women’s junior eight won at both WeHORR and SHORR, with other good junior girls results coming from Shiplake in both the girl’s quads and the school eights.
On the boy’s side, it was the crew from Windsor Boys that had a good head season, with wins at SHORR and the scullery. Shiplake won the boy’s championship eights at SHORR. Going into the summer season and with the National Schools’ Regatta looming at the end of May, there should be some excellent racing.
The Boat Race was next up, and it was great to see it back on the Thames after a year out. This year, it was even across all four races, with Cambridge dominating the women’s first and second races and Oxford men doing the same. There was some classic Boat Race drama with intense steering from Jasper Parish in the Cambridge Women’s Blue Boat, and overall the two races did not disappoint.
Coming up next in the calendar is BUCS regatta at the end of April, and a full regatta season looks very likely. We will once again see more international crews making the trip over for the latter half of June, with Metropolitan, Marlow and Henley Royal Regatta all falling in this period. Finally, the juniors will flood to Eton for National Schools’, and we will see who has made the successful transition from winter to summer training. Overall, it has been a great season, and the fun isn’t over just yet!
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