Wallingford Regatta is one of the first major events of the regatta season and a strong performance this weekend could set up a precedence of who to watch out for over the coming weeks as we fast approach the National Schools’ Regatta and Henley Royal. With trialists representing the country at Munich this weekend, top athletes from some clubs will undoubtedly be missing, and therefore we could see slower times across the board compared to if clubs had their strongest combinations competing.
With the junior quads unable to compete at Schools’ Head, we are almost forced to look back to February and early March head races to gain an indication of speed of the top competing crews in this categories. All of the top competing crews in this category will have most likely been on training camp over the Easter holidays, and we will be able to see the evidence of who’s training camp was most effective during racing this weekend. Here’s an overview of the clubs which have a shot at taking home some silverware this weekend:
The Windsor Boys’ School
Off the back of their win at Henley Royal Regatta last season, Windsor Boys’ will be looking to replicate that result this year, or even try and go one step further and supersede all of the times that they posted in last year’s combination. We really haven’t seen enough of them so far this season to gauge how quick they are going, and therefore it will be interesting to see whether they put out a top crew this weekend and whether it can perform up to everyone’s expectations.
Star and Arrow (Leander)
Star and Arrow have four crews racing in this category. Their top combination won’t be present for certain, as one of their top athletes, Miles Devereux, will be representing Great Britain at Munich this weekend. However, I imagine that Leander will have a very strong crew present to try and upset the rest of the field.
Claires Court School
Claires Court have shown some decent calibre so far this season, coming second at Hammersmith Head to recent Junior Sculling Regatta winners Lea rowing club, who also appear to be present this weekend. However, they haven’t been able to show anywhere near the speed or quality of technique that the Claires Court combination featuring athletes such as Ollie Costly & Finlay Gronmark displayed race after race a few years back. I imagine Claires Court will have their top combination put out, and it’s likely to be a strong crew, however it is questionable whether they will be capable of taking the win this weekend.
Lea Rowing Club
Off the back of two straight wins at Hammersmith Head and last weekend’s Junior Sculling Regatta, Lea will be feeling pretty confident. However, in both of those races, Lea weren’t faced against their three main rivals, Henley, Leander and Windsor Boys. This weekend will be a real test for this crew and they will definitely be aiming to come out on top of the other three crews to set them up in a strong position moving forwards to National Schools’ in a few weeks time.
Henley Rowing Club
With four combinations entered, Henley will be looking to assert dominance over the result of the field and will be looking for their four quads to place as highly in the rankings as possible. It is likely that Henley could have their top combination, or a very strong combination present, and they are definitely expected and have a lot of pressure to perform. A strong performance at Reading Uni Head before Easter indicates they are quick, however with a large margin off Leander’s top combination, Leander will definitely be looking to maintain that margin and defeat Henley once again this weekend, while Henley will be looking to take revenge.
I would predict the win to be taken by either Leander or Windsor Boys’ this weekend, however with various athletes present at Munich regatta expectations could definitely be subverted. Both Leander & Windsor Boys will also be looking to peak for National Schools’ and Henley rather than this race, and therefore might not be as quick as we might expect at this point. I would also expect there to be a fight between Lea and Henley for top three positions as well.
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