Shiplake College 1st VIII Crowned Schools’ Head Champions
Shiplake College 1st VIII won the Schools’ Head of the River Race on Friday 13 March 2019 breaking the championship course record while they were at it! The win means they are the fastest school crew currently in Great Britain over a long course. The crew (S Burnand, R Ash, D Brown, S Hjortland-Marks, R Adams, T Boret, B Brockway and M Brown, with J Kirby as cox) rowed a fantastic race and paced themselves perfectly despite the cox box losing connection to the speakers in the boat half way down the course. A strong following wind helped the VIII row an extremely fast race, breaking the championship course record by 4 seconds in a time of 16:36. Eton College finished 2nd, 0.5 seconds behind with St Paul’s School finishing 3rd, a further 0.4 seconds later.
Not to be overshadowed, both the 2nd VIII and J16 VIII finished 4th in the country which is particularly promising going into regatta season. The J15 VIII raced hard finishing a respectable 10th. They will no doubt be hungry to train hard and improve on this result for the summer.
There was great success also for Shiplake girls S Hahn and E Nolson representing Henley Rowing Club, as they won the Girls' Championship VIIIs. Their boat finished the course in a time of 18:44.
Director of Rowing, Dave Currie said: “I am delighted with the results on Friday and would like to congratulate Mr Mackworth-Praed (1st VIII Coach) and Mr Lee (2nd VIII Coach) for their hard work. These results have been built over a few years of hard work from the staff at the boat club and the support from the school. It really has been a team effort.”
Headmaster Gregg Davies said: “It’s great to see that the passion of the coaches for their crews to succeed has been borne out. I think we can now begin to believe that we are here to stay amongst the elite of schools’ rowing. I couldn’t ask for a better leaving present!”
Photo Credit: All Mark One