Champ Girls 2x
With 36 fierce crews entered and only 18 making it through to multilane racing this is sure to be a closely fought race, with all crews fighting to get through the time trial. We are going to look at some of the contenders and attempt to predict what could happen in this exciting category.
City of Oxford- Cherry medalled at the Junior Sculling Regatta in the WJ18 2x event, and the same crew made the semi-finals at National Schools in 2017 suggesting they are experienced racers in this combination. Henley’s Johnson came 2nd at Wallingford, and the very strong junior women’s program there should stand them in good stead for this event. Isle of Ely-Hayden is also entered, having placed 3rd at Wallingford. Molly Johnson was part of the successful Isle of Ely quad that made the Diamond Jubilee final at Henley last year and raced in the double at HIR last season also after a fantastic win at Brit Champs. Local rivals Kings School Ely have their top quad entered into two doubles here, presumably as a warm up for Champ G4x on Sunday. This could make them a fast crew, shown by their quad’s winning performance at Bedford Regatta, but also if their quad is the priority then limited race experience in these combinations could hold them back, although I suspect not.
Marlow RC-Robertson placed 3rd at JSR in the WJ17 event, and another Marlow crew won at Wallingford Regatta. If this was the same crew as entered here at NSR, then they are definitely in contention for a medal. Nottingham RC Draycott could also be capable of doing very well, with a 5th place at pairs head and a victory at Wallingford, although whether these are the same crews it will be hard to tell. Nottingham RC consistently turn out good scullers, and so I would not underestimate the potential of this crew to go far in this event. Tideway Scullers’ B crew (Goodall), actually won a silver medal at JSR in the WJ17 event. With their A crew not racing at JSR, and the B crew capable of medalling I expect both of these crews to do well, carrying on the good form of TSS’s junior girls squad this season. Both of Walton RC’s crews entered raced at JSR, A-Stenning and B-Hawes, placing 1st in WJ17 2x and 7th in WJ18 2x respectively. Katherine Stenning has performed well in the trialling process so far, so despite being a younger J17 crew, should be pretty fast. Certainly ones to watch will be Latymer, who have had very good form in the quad this season with wins at School's Head and Wallingford Regatta. This crew contains Carter Nelson of the Coupe quad last year, and given the success of their quad, these girls will definitely be looking to be on that podium in the doubles.
Some wildcards could come in the form of York City- Edmunds, who placed 2nd at Pairs Head with top sculler Lucy Edmunds of the Junior Worlds 4x last year, Hinksey Sculling School- Foster who won the B final at JSR a few weeks ago and Yarm School- Wake, who placed fourth in the C final at National schools last year, obviously returning a year older and with lots more racing experience behind them.
With this being the first of two days of racing, we expect to see some fresh, fast racing to find the winner of the Championship Girls Double Sculls Crockford Bowl for 2018.
Alice J18