After a very successful Junior Sculling Head in March, we return to Dorney Lake for its first regatta of the season: Wallingford. At the typical distance of 2000m, this brings back the ‘comfortable’ format of side-by-side racing, whilst the better weather makes the event more exciting for the parents and other spectators that come to watch, rather than the dreary, cold typical Head race where the only upside is a warm bacon bap afterwards. With 12 crews entered this year, we are sure to see some competitive rowing, the side-by-side element an added bonus for spectators and competitors alike, the latter being able to tactically use each other to make pushes and provide motivation for their crew.
Radley College
After an incredibly impressive performance at the Schools Head of the River, coming in second just behind St Paul’s (who are notably absent from this year’s draw) by a comfortable margin. With an extra month of training, and the ability to bounce back off of a near defeat at the School’s head, I’m sure Radley will be setting their sights on the top place this time around. The only disruptive factor could be the change in racing format, moving from a 6.8km head race to a 2km sprint. Even so, with what we’ve seen from Radley before with podium positions in the three eights entered for Hampton Head, I’m confident they will be able to adapt to the new format, making the most of the side-by-side racing and potentially using it to put an even bigger gap between them and their opponents.
King’s College School
With two boats set to take on Wallingford this year, the King’s College School are going to be hot on the heels of Radley being a reachable 10 seconds off them at School’s Head, which they are going to try and reduce (or ideally overtake) on Sunday. This would also repeat their success last year, where King’s won their category heat by 10 seconds, what seems to be their lucky (or unlucky) time, before missing out on a podium position, coming 5th in the final. Having also recently had a rivalry with St Pauls over the head season, it will be interesting to see how they perform without that competition- perhaps giving Radley a close race.
Shiplake College
After a 10th place finish at the School’s Head in their category, Shiplake will be looking to elder peers who cruised the Championship category by 14 seconds and the second eights category which was more closely won by three seconds. Despite not racing at the event last year, Shiplake will be looking to put in a good time to work from, supported by further entries in the Challenge Eights and the open schools Eights categories. Being able to put out so many competitive eights from one rowing programme is an excellent achievement, and even if Sunday doesn’t go Shiplake’s way, they will know that they still have three years of development to come, which will comfortably put them in a similar position to their current J18 crews and their successes.
Predictions
With so much time spent in Eights over the summer, crews are bound to have developed technically and powerfully, which will see a higher quality of racing than if we looked back at the first events of September last year. Although we now reach another ‘reset’ with a return to 7 lane side by side racing, each crew will have matured over the winter, and received tailored advice from coaches to really push the most out of them that they can.
As far as predictions go, I would be looking in the direction of Radley, who have been consistently posting fast times competitively. Radley had the fastest 500m time last year, and despite coming third, they were able to cling on to whatever boat speed they had been able to brew throughout the race, to just finish a commendable 3 seconds behind champions Windsor (also missing this year). Though King’s College were further behind, this year’s crew seem to be stronger, and the absence of key rivals St Paul’s could be their chance for success. Although, with other crews like Dulwich College, Hampton School, St George’s College and Mossbourne Rowing Academy also stacking up the heats, Sunday’s race will not disappoint with so many big names in the rowing community sending out junior crews to battle out for the sacred medal positions.
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