The first head race of the 22/23 rowing season will be the Vesta Scullers’ Head to be held on Saturday 17th September. This 6.8km race will compete on the River Thames championship course. There are 10 scullers from 7 different clubs competing in this year’s Junior 16 Men’s single event.
Newark Rowing Club
Newark Rowing Club is known for producing some of the country’s top junior scullers and has two entries for this event. The first entry, James Gleed, had an exceptional 2021/22 season which he rounded off with an impressive 2nd place at the British Junior Rowing Championships. The second entry, Charlie Russell, raced with Gleed in an impressive performance at Peterborough Junior Regatta winning the J15 Double. It will be interesting to see how these two will perform against each other in their individual boats.
Bewl Bridge Rowing Club
Bewl Bridge Rowing Club has one entry for this event. This sculler, Jack Ribbens, has had an extremely impressive 2021/22 season which includes a win at the Junior Sculling Regatta and an impressive 3rd place at the British Junior Rowing Championships. These results show Ribbens will be a hard competitor to beat in this event.
City of Bristol Rowing Club
City of Bristol Rowing Club has also entered just one sculler, Sam Hickman, for this event. However, like the rest of the field, he has had a strong last season in the single scull with an impressive 4th place at the British Rowing Junior Championships. This shows that Hickman will be in with a strong chance on race day.
Tideway Scullers School
Tideway Scullers School has entered four scullers for this event. 3 of these entries (Hamill, Edbury, Vizgirda) had a strong performance together in the J15 4x+ at National Schools’ Regatta where they placed 7th. Alongside this, Hamill and Vizgirda placed 2nd in the J15 2x at the British Rowing Junior Championships at the end of last season. This sets them on a good path for this event albeit the challenges in a single are very different to those in a quad. Ultimately their performance will be decided by their ability to face the challenge of the single scull in the conditions.
Prediction
Despite this event being filled with exceptional scullers, with 3 of this list coming within the top 5 at the British Rowing Junior Championships, I predict the winner to be Jack Ribbens of Bewl Bridge RC after his consistently strong performances in high-level competitions last season.
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