For many, this will be the first race of the season, a chance to for athletes to put themselves in early contention for seats and for coaches to start looking at some combinations for the upcoming season. The J18 2x event here has an entry of 16 crews with no real standout crew from previous seasons, the event is largely made up of schools who would be expecting to boat a competitive 8 later on in the season, so as a result this event is quite wide open as there could be some variation of sculling proficiency.
Eton College BC
Eton most definitely fall into the category of those who will make the switch into the 8 as the season goes on, and tend not to pull up too many trees until later in the year. They have 5 doubles in this event, with the first coming under the name of Clarke. He was a part of Eton’s 3rd 8+ last season who took gold at National Schools’ in the 3rd 8s event. Jain, who stroked the same 8+ is the name given under the second crew so these crews will want to get one over on each other. The third Eton crew is under the name McLusky. He was in the 5 seat of the Eton J16 Ch8 from National Schools’ that placed second in the B final. The fourth Eton double is under the name of the guy who stroked that same 8 Lucas Weiss. The final Eton double is under the name Gordon-Brown. He was in the bow seat of the Eton J16 2nd 8+ who took silver in the 2nd 8s event at National Schools. Again these 3 J17 crews should all have a good inter squad battle but they may struggle racing up a year.
Westminster School BC
Another club who are known for racing at the top end of both the 8s and the 4xs come the later months of the season, Westminster have put their athletes into small boats for the early season. The first double is under the name of Grewal. He was a part of the Westminster J16 4x last year who qualified for the C final at National Schools, however they withdrew from this race. The second Westminster crew comes under the name of Hameedi and whilst i cant see this name under any crews from last year, Westminster have a solid pedigree sculling so this double will no doubt be solid.
Emmanuel School BC
A club who generally would have boated a 1st 8 in years past, with the rule changes for National Schools’ the coaches will be scratching their heads as to which events to stack with their top crews later on in the season. . In terms of this event, Emmanuel have three crews entered and looking at the draw, they are starting one after the other. All of these crews have guys who were in Emmanuel’s J16 4+ from National Schools that took bronze. Therefore again these doubles should be much the same in terms of speed, and it will be interesting to see how they compare to Eton and Westminster’s J17 crews as well.
American School in London
Just a single entry here from ASL but one that has the potential to win the event. The entry comes under the name of Wilkin, who was in the 3 seat of the Ch4x from last year. This crew placed 2nd in the D final at National Schools and also competed at Henley. Given the experience that he can bring to this crew from racing in such high quality events, this double will be in a good place for this field.
The other crews in this event come from Cheltenham College and Dulwich, but given both crews are racing up a year, and have no real J16 results to speak of, I can’t see them contending for a win here.
Predictions
A tricky one to call given that it is early on in the season, and this race is both a long way, and with S bends 1.5km in, one with potential steering difficulties to be faced. With experience from last year I would pick American School in London to win this one. Behind them, it is hard to see another stand out crew, as all come from sweep crews from last year. As such it will be very open with any one of these crews feeling that they can produce a good result with a strong row. I would imagine the two J18 boats from Eton will round off the top 3.
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