Women’s Head of the River Race 2022

Last weekend, three eights across the performance, development and novice squads headed down to London for the prestigious Women’s Head of the River Race, which last took place in 2018!

For the performance women’s 8+, competing in the Senior University category, a strong first half saw them overtaking both Lea and Bath University early-on. With Henley B hot on their heels, the girls managed to hold them until Hammersmith Bridge, where sadly a change in wind direction and a difficult line reduced the pace of their second half. Despite this, they still placed 12th in category and enjoyed the return of such a great event.

Next down the course were the development eight, coached by Jack Wells and stroked by Tegan Lessey. They hit a good rhythm off the start and caught up 3 crews by Hammersmith. Also challenged by the rough conditions, all eight girls kept the commitment and built into the final 1km, fiercely overtaking a crew in the last 250m. Although this boat was only racing for time due to substitutions, unofficially they placed 8th in the Challenge Academic category, which is an excellent result.

Finally, the novice ladies, who waited VERY patiently at the start, built on their debut performance at BUCS and put in another promising row. For their first race on the Tideway, they demonstrated some great resilience in the choppy waters and gusting winds. They were very happy with their row and glad to have gained more experience before the start of regatta season. They placed 12th in their category and had moved above crews from Leeds and Birmingham that we were behind just two weeks ago at BUCS Head.

The next race for the boat club is the Men’s Head of the River in just 2 weeks time!

Written by Katie Kearsey