On Saturday, we were treated to some superb racing at the largest ever Melbourne Head Regatta. The regatta featured a record 2,741 athletes across 75 events, including several interstate school crews. Conditions were fast. The recent heavy rainfall across Melbourne over the past week meant crews were treated to a generous following current, resulting in some rapid times. Being the first significant opportunity for club and school crews to race this season, many of Saturday’s results were difficult to predict and have now provided a clearer picture of where crews stand as the season gets underway.
Open Small Boats
Melbourne University dominated with their performances in the small boats, coming away with the trophy in both the men’s and women’s pairs and singles. In the men’s pair, Tom Foley and Winston Hooper had a commanding win, laying down a time that was 34 seconds faster than second place. Rohan Lavery also had a comfortable win, taking out the men’s single in a time 32 seconds faster than Mercantile’s Dom Frederico, who placed second. In the women’s pair, MUBC impressively took out the top three placings, with Zara Lavery and Sara D’Uray winning by seven seconds over the U23 combination of Chloe Nevins and Meg Dumbrell. In the women’s single, Romy Cantwell, the U23 World Championship medallist, took home the women’s single scull in a time 34 seconds faster than second place. In the Lightweight events, Bank’s Nick Szigeter and Essendon’s Rachael Hatherly took out the men’s and women’s singles, respectively.
Schoolgirl Eights
The girls from Firbank Grammar School took out the top place in the Division One School Eight, boasting a ten-second margin over the crew from Loreto Toorak, and MLC Kew a further 3.86 seconds back in third. It was a good day across the board for the Firbank program, with the win by their first eight being followed up by a second place in both the Division two and three eight events. The Firbank first eight have been constantly improving since their success in 2023 when coach Will Acherman took over, and it is promising that this success is starting to trickle down to the rest of the program. Loreto Toorak proved their program is a force to be reckoned with this season, winning the division two and division three eights by a margin of 17 and 24 seconds, respectively. A promising start for new MLC Kew coach Jarrod Watson to place third in both the Division one and two eights, and fourth in division three, after a few years away from the A-final at Head of the Schoolgirls. Interestingly, last year’s top competitors, St Catherine’s and Melbourne Girls Grammar, appear to be a bit off the pace, placing fourth and fifth respectively in the division one eight. Firbank has emerged from this weekend as the one to chase in the top boat class, but it is still early days, and all schools will be looking to improve on their results from this weekend.
Schoolboy Eights
In the Male Division One School Eight, Scotch College had a solid win, putting down a time that was 15 seconds faster than Xavier College in second. In the Division Two eights, Brighton Grammar took the win by a narrow 1.88 seconds over Xavier, and Melbourne Grammar a further three seconds behind. Scotch, being by far the most dominant school in this event for the past ten years, will look to improve on this performance as the season progresses, while Xavier, Melbourne Grammar, and Brighton will attempt to figure out how to close what is a mighty margin as the season progresses. The male school eights entries are looking a bit bare, with only eight crews racing in Division one. There were notable absences from Caulfield Grammar and Wesley College, who were swept by illness, as well as Haileybury, which has done away with its rowing program in recent years. However, it is the first major regatta of the season, and hopefully, we will see a larger field next week at the Schoolboys and Schoolgirls Regatta in Nagambie, where these crews will compete over 2000 metres.
Under 21 Eights
Mercantile will be pleased with its results in the Under 21 Eights, winning both the male and female events. The Mercantile men narrowly cinched victory from Brighton Grammar by 3.70 seconds. While the Mercantile women had a convincing win by 16.38 seconds over Loreto Toorak who placed second, and Melbourne University a further two seconds back in third. Off the back of their Prince Phillip Challenge Henley Royal Regatta Campaign earlier this year, Mercantile has a well-established youth women’s program, whereas Melbourne University has some work to do to make up this ground on Mercantile and ensure they are beating the schoolgirl crews.
It should be noted, Melbourne University had the unnofficial fastest time in the men’s event; however, unfortunately, due to illness, they were unable to field a crew consisting of all U21 athletes. Therefore, they raced by invitation with senior athlete Harry Fox in the boat. It will be interesting to see the results when these two crews next face off against one another.
Female Open Eight
As predicted, the Melbourne University crew of Dumbrell, Nevins, Lavery, D’Uray, Harwood, Hooper, Dawson, Cantwell and coxed by Jones, had a convincing win over the crew from Mercantile, going 18.11 seconds faster down the course. This is a promising result for the Melbourne University crew heading into Head of the Yarra this weekend.
Male Open Eight
In the closest race of the day, Mercantile took home the win in the Male Open Eight. The crew of Simpson, Frederico, Brown, Kerr, Laburn, Fielding, Polkinghorne, Scalzo and coxed by Kelemenc, snatched victory by a mere 0.80 seconds over Melbourne University. This close result makes the outcome of this Saturday’s Head of the Yarra all the more anxiously awaited and exciting to watch.
This year’s Melbourne Head really cemented the regatta as the premier pre-Christmas event, with the large number of interstate school crews travelling down to race and the enormous number of entries from clubs and schools across all categories. It was also exciting to see the addition of mixed events to the program, following the announcement of the mixed eight to the LA 2028 Olympic roster, and these races will be sure to be a fun addition to the racing schedule this season. Saturday’s racing has provided a clearer picture of where each crew ranks and the work each club needs to do before the key events on the domestic calendar get underway in February. Pending the arrival of even more interstate crews and the return of the National Training Centre athletes, Saturday’s results certainly set an interesting scene ahead of this weekend’s Head of the Yarra.
