While BUCS regatta provides racing for university crews this bank holiday weekend, Wallingford promises a packed schedule of racing for clubs and schools at Dorney Lake on Sunday. The junior women’s sculling scene is always a competitive one, however with many big programmes prioritising the eight this season, as well as some of the top junior athletes away racing at Munich International Regatta, the field is a lot more open than in previous years and we’ll be seeing some new names on the podium.
Tideway Scullers School
After arguably the best comeback story of the season and a phenomenal win in the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last year, Tideway Scullers School have well and truly cemented their name amongst the top junior women in the country, and have shown their impressive rate of improvement throughout the year. They’ve had strong results in the quad this season already, with a trip across the pond to take a second place at Head of the Charles Regatta and a more recent third place on their own stretch at School’s Head of the River. They have also completed their annual Easter training camp in Belgium, culminating in success at Ghent International Regatta, so have already had side-by-side racing experience and are well set up to defend their title in this event. However with one of their top athletes Delevante racing for GB at Munich, this crew will be a different combination to usual, so may not be as practiced as some of the other quads they will line up against.
Putney High School Boat Club
Finishing the head season off strong with a win in the WJ17 4x at the Junior Sculling Head, Putney High School will be looking to make their mark in the WJ18 category, and keep building on their success. Despite being a young crew, this quad appear to have been training together for a long time, competing in the WJ16 4x at Wallingford last year where they came a close second. Their brilliant regatta season together culminated in representing Great Britain in the J16 GB-France match. Their stroke, Habdank-Toczyska has done well in GB trials so far this season, and has already raced this distance at the April Regatta, finishing in the B final in the JW 2-, so can bring experience and useful tactical knowledge into the crew.
Maidenhead Rowing Club
Coming off the back of an Easter training camp at Lac du Causse in France, I’m sure Maidenhead will bring a strong and well practiced crew into this race. Their quad has performed well already this year, coming an impressive sixth at the School’s Head of the River where they beat many crews they will be racing on Sunday, which should give them confidence coming into the heats. They also came fourth at Hampton Head in the W Sch/Jun 4x, only 3 seconds behind Putney High, so will be hoping their Easter training pays off and they can flip this result around over the shorter 2000m course.
Lady Eleanor Holles School
So far this season Lady Eleanor Holles School have competed in both sweep and sculling, and are continuing this at Wallingford, entering multiple eights and a quad. Whether their entry into this event is their top boat or not, I’m sure they will put down a good performance as the squad have proved their strength and depth at SHORR, where they came seventh in the eights. They have also completed an Easter training camp in Sabaudia, Italy, which will have provided them with good weather and lots of opportunity to find even more speed moving into regatta season, which they’ll be able to put into practice on Sunday.
Other entries
Many of these crews have recently raced each other, for example at Junior Sculling Head where Great Marlow School came fourth in the WJ17 4x category, beating the times of Grange School, The Rowing Club and Pangbourne College BC who came eleventh and sixteenth in the WJ18 4x respectively. But with Wallingford covering half the distance and now including racing starts and side-by-side tactics, we may see a switch up in the order. South African Schools Rowing Union also won the WJ16 4x at this event last year, narrowly edging out Putney High school, so will be looking to repeat this result on Sunday.
Predictions:
1st Tideway Scullers School
2nd Putney High School Boat Club
3rd Maidenhead Rowing Club
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