National Schools’ Regatta 2025 – Open Championship Coxed Fours Preview

The coxed four – a marvel of engineering and innovation. National Schools’ Regatta – a pinnacle of any junior rower’s season. This hotly anticipated category at the National Schools’ Regatta promises intense rivalry and competition on the weekend. It is the culmination of the entire year’s work. Superhuman efforts do not decide results on the day; rather, dividends are paid on the basis of a consistent winter. Let’s take a look at some of the crews that are challenging for the Hedsor Cup.

Windsor Boys’ School

With an impressive third-place finish in the A-final of Junior 16 coxed fours last year at the National Schools’ Regatta, the bronze-medalling bow of that crew will now be stroking the championship four. The experience in this category in younger years should hold them in good stead for managing the nuances of side-by-side fours racing. Surely, a boat club as famed for success as Windsor Boys will put on an impressive performance on the weekend.

Royal Shrewsbury School

This crew will be looking to defend their 2024 five-second win in this category. Though none of last year’s National Schools’ Regatta crew are returning to the category this time round, the new athletes for Royal Shrewsbury School will be looking to stamp their mark on the race and show they can be just as good as last year’s four. Ioan Mackay-Thomas, Theo Edmondson, Toby Strebel, and Henry Harrison (coxed by Clem Graham) are no doubt going to be a force to be reckoned with on Saturday, so we can only wait in anticipation to see if they can match last year’s performance.

Pangbourne College

Again, no returners in the crew but a returning club in this category with storied success. With a silver medal last year, triumphing over Canford (bronze medalists) by an impressive five seconds, there will be hope at Pangbourne that a similar result can be pulled off.

King’s College School and Radley College

Though new to this category, these two are powerhouses at the highest level of junior sweep rowing, with many international GB athletes and US college recruits among their ranks. They will have received extremely high-level coaching, and so the experience and hard work they are surrounded by at their clubs can only mean one thing: two more strong crews and even more competition on the weekend.

Prediction

Competition in this category will come from all sources: traditional powerhouses of junior rowing in Radley and King’s, and famed success in fours last year at the National Schools’ Regatta. If I had to call it, I would say Shrewsbury as last year’s winners are favourites, closely followed by Radley, Pangbourne and Windsor Boys. The podium is not set or easy to predict, so we will have to wait until race day to find out.