Regatta season is finally underway and Dorney is set to see some fierce racing at Wallingford Regatta this weekend. With university crews doing battle at BUCS, club crews will be looking to get one up on each other in the first 2km of many this season.
The Women’s Challenge Sweep events look to be as competitive as ever and it’s exciting to see plenty of entries across the board.
Challenge Eights
Thames RC have entered three crews into the Challenge Eights, demonstrating the depth of their women’s squad. Two Vesta RC crews, Leander Club, London RC and Headington School BC make up the rest of the line up. Expect this to be a straight shoot-out between Leander and Thames for the victory as their rivalry continues to heat up.
Leander are unlikely to stack their boat with all their top athletes, with their focus in the eight instead being on developing their Wargrave eligible athletes. Thames boats are likely to be a mixture of both and their top two crews in particular will be fast. It’s exciting to see junior crew Headington also entered. Having placed third at Schools’ Head in March, they will aim to step on in regatta season and get some scalps over senior crews this weekend.
The racing will be fast and fierce. Thames’ top boat will just edge victory this time round, Leander second and Thames’ second boat third.
Challenge Coxless Fours
Leander, Thames, Vesta and London have all entered multiple crews into this event. Leander’s top four will likely be stacked with their top athletes, making them strong favourites. Two of their pairs recently made the A final at Trials, with Juliette Perry and Tash Morrice placing second and Daisy Bellamy and Amelia Standing sixth. Bellamy and Standing are both U23 world champions in the four from 2021, making this unit a formidable crew. Their second and third boats will also be strong and likely to push each other. Thames will also have some strong development athletes, including the likes of Annie Sharpe and Darla Matthews who impressed at trials.
Leander’s top crew will be dominant this weekend. It would be impressive to see a Leander one, two, three but Thames will aim to disrupt that.
Challenge Coxed Fours
Thames have again entered two crews, Putney Town RC two and Vesta and St Edward’s School BC one each in the Challenge Coxed Fours. Vesta’s fours have performed well in recent years and may challenge Thames for top spot, especially if they target this event over the coxless four. Last year they took victory by twenty seconds, the margin might be smaller this year but it would be unsurprising to see them on top again. It’s exciting to see another junior crew entered in challenge and St Edward’s can only benefit from this experience and might get on the podium behind Vesta and Thames.
Challenge Pairs
With no club category in the pairs, this event has more entries than most. Standouts include Leander, Thames, Upper Thames and Tideway Scullers School, although we are yet to know which athletes will feature. Both Leander and Thames’ pairs will be strong regardless of who is in the boat.
Upper Thames have less depth than the squads’ of their bigger rivals but in a smaller boat they could be competitive. Similarly Tideway cannot be underestimated and are capable of taking victory.
This event is too hard to call; it’s wide open and anyone could take victory.
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