This weekend, a tight field of five crews fresh from the pinnacle of regatta season will battle it out in the junior women’s eights at the British Rowing Club Championships. Being well into the summer, this is an opportunity for crews to wrap up their season, and for the couple of school crews entered, it may be among some athletes’ last races in their crews, so they will surely want to make it memorable.
Marlow Rowing Club
Marlow Rowing Club comes to the Club Championships off the back of a strong run of regatta results. They most notably were the runners-up in the The Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, in which they had been extremely strong throughout. The fact that they have also entered two crews in the WJ18 quads event this weekend suggests their most successful Henley Royal Regatta crews will likely be going out in the sculling boats again, but their junior sweep results recently have also suggested good pace. At Henley Women’s Regatta, they reached the semifinals in the coxed fours, and at the National Schools’ Regatta, they were the fastest in the Championship Coxed Four time trial, and later placed fourth in the A-final, suggesting their potential in the eight. Given their brilliant speed overall of late, it would be remiss to overlook them for the top spot.
Wallingford Rowing Club
Wallingford Rowing Club seem to have focused on sweep throughout this season, suggesting they’ll go into this event feeling confident. They started strong at the National Schools’ Regatta, one of their crews coming fifth in the A-final of the Championship Eight, and had another strong result at Henley Women’s where they reached the semifinals before being beaten by Headington School. Despite their comparatively disappointing Wednesday exit from The Prince Philip Challenge Trophy at HRR, they have shown they could hold their own in a competitive field of eights, so should be on track for a strong result this weekend.
Other entries
The other entries are Great Marlow School Boat Club, who competed in this event at HRR, though they were eliminated on the Tuesday; Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association; and Leeds Rowing Club.
Predictions
With their run of success of late, I reckon it’ll be Marlow that ultimately comes out fastest. However, I expect Wallingford to put in a good performance, perhaps followed quite closely by Great Marlow School.
