After victory in W.MasC.4+ last year, the Senior Women’s Squad were looking to put in yet another good performance at this year’s Vet Fours Head. A few weeks after narrowly missing out on a win in W.MasC.2- at Pairs Head after being impeded by crews starting ahead of them, Gill Cooper and Judith Weik were joined by Debbie Morley and Bailee Stratton to race in the coxless event this year on the 6.4k course along the Thames.
The winning W.MasC.4- on their way to victory
The crew finished the course in 20:55, 41 seconds clear of the 2nd placed crew from Ardingly. Their time saw them finish 79th overall, 6th fastest women’s crew of the day and the fastest women’s sweep crew, beating all of their younger counterparts.
“We hit a strong sustainable rhythm and by the end of the race had managed to reel in all of our opposition”, said steerswoman Judith Weik. “We were able to hold our racing line well, and several overtakes made for an exciting race.”
Band 2 men’s 4x
The following day, the Senior Men’s Squad sent two crews and the Junior Performance Squad sent one crew to race at the Fours Head of the River Race. Both Senior Men’s crews enjoyed good performances, with Nick Rice, Sean Collins, Jamie Brown and Hadi Boukhatmi finishing 9th of 22 in the Band 2 quads and Tom Wordsworth, Andrew Marsden, Guy Fiddian, Tom Hetherington and cox Sara Russo finishing 5th of 25 Band 2 coxed fours. The girls’ 4x of Tabitha Thornton-Swan, Eva Hill, Izzie Ritchie and Lorna McBride finished 27th in a large field of 34 entries.
Full results for Vet Fours Head can be found here, and here for Fours Head.
