Fuller’s Head of the River Fours

Given the rainfall and flooding of rivers and lakes over the last month, races and training across the country has been touch and go. The time off the water has been a mixed blessing, crews have been unable to boat for water sessions for weeks leading up to the first event since GB trials, and water time is always valuable for getting crews together. On the other hand, the club has had a solid period of dedicated land training that will provide a new level of fitness to go into the main part of the head season with, and it’s kept the coaches on their toes getting some variety into the training week to week.

With the worst of the weather behind them, 8 crews headed to London this weekend for Fours Head, the same 4.25 mile course as the Head of the River race in March. The fitness that athletes have been finding since the start of the season showed well in the event, as the longest of the season, with crews able to maintain good speed the whole way. One of the highlights of the weekend was for the women’s coxless four, racing in the open category. The young crew came away with a strong second place in their event just behind the winners, with both of these crews well clear of the rest of the field, this is promising for later in the season as the crew develops.

Also for the women there was some squad competition with two quads racing in the same category. It was lightweight versus openweight for these boats in the Band 1 Academic quads, and it would be the lightweights that came out on top after a fantastic effort through the last stretch, overtaking the openweights as they rowed past the coaching team at Barn Elms. For the men a standout performance came from the coxed four. Picking up third in their cateogry they finished above a good selection of crews from Cambridge and Oxford, and closed the gap on a number of the coxless boats at the event.

With many of the crews coming together last minute for this event it was a good demonstration of the ability of the athletes to respond well to circumstances and take advantage of their strengths, there is a long season ahead that they can now build on these results with.

Results summary;

4x Academic Band 1 – 5th in category

4+ Academic Band 2 – 3rd in category

4- Academic Band 1 – 7th in category

W4x Academic Band 1 – 3rd and 5th in category

W4- Band 1 – 2nd in category

W4- Academic Band 2 – 5th in category

W4+ Academic Band 2 – 3rd in category