Marlow International Regatta round-up

Marlow International Regatta provided the perfect warm-up for the Great Britain women’s quadruple scullers ahead of the World Championships in Beijing.

The world champions had no competition for their event at Poznan in Poland so Marlow allowed them to compete in the men’s event at the regatta, held at Dorney Lake at the weekend.

Although not as fast as the best men, they were pleased to be able to have strong opposition to work with before the World Championships.

Over 600 crews competed over the two days. There were overseas entries from Pakistan and South Africa as well as the enthusiastic competitors from Ireland.

In the men’s elite eights event for the Marlow Grand Challenge Cup there were three crews competing.

Over the first part of the 2,000 metre course the London second crew led with Tideway Scullers third. By 1,000 metres the first crew led with Tideway Scullers third. The order remained the same to the finish where the first crew led by one second.

There were 12 senior 1 eights. After the first round Agecroft from Manchester, Durham University, Eton College, Henley, Leander and Molesey lined up for the final which was hard fought. At the line Leander beat Durham by just over half a second with Agecroft a similar distance away in third place.

Thirty-five crews entered the senior 2 eights event and they raced in five heats of seven crews. After these races the 15 crews raced in three hard fought semi-finals to produce the finalists from Commercial (Ireland), Abingdon School, Vesta from Putney, Imperial College, Oxford Brookes University and University College (Dublin).

The Oxford crew led to 500 metres but four crews were within one second of each other. By halfway Abingdon had taken a narrow lead over Vesta and Dublin with the rest within one second. An extra effort by Abingdon over the last 500 metres gave them victory with Vesta second and Oxford Brookes third.

Fifty-six crews entered senior 3 eights so the event was raced in two divisions. In Division A Balliol College beat Kings School Chester and Exeter University.

In Division B Westminster School beat Birmingham University and Liverpool University.

Boys under 14 are not allowed to row with a single oar but they can scull using two oars. This allows them to compete in octuple boats which accommodate eight boys each with two oars. The event is very popular and attracted 15 entries.

The winners were Abingdon School who came home two lengths ahead of Bedford School with Radley well down in third place.

There was very keen racing in the elite coxless fours with nine entries. In the final Molesey led at halfway closely followed by Imperial College and Leander.

They maintained the lead to the finish where they beat Imperial and Oxford Brookes University.

In senior 1 fours Tyne led from Combined Services and maintained the lead to 1,500 metres. A good spurt from Services took them ahead of Tyne at the finish with Grosvenor from Chester in third place.

In senior 2 fours upper Thames led from the start and maintained this to the finish where they beat First and Third Trinity and Wolfson College Oxford.

In the three-boat final of junior fours, Evesham led from the start to easily beat two Eton College crews.

Seventeen crews entered elite quadruple sculls where Tees took an early lead over the Royal Dutch Federation crew and the composite Henley/Leander/Lea crew. This lead was maintained to the finish to beat the Dutch crew under two seconds with the Henley composite third.

Twenty-seven crews entered the school/junior quadruple sculls event where the recently formed Maidenhead crew did well to reach the final but it was the Royal Dutch crew who took an early lead which they maintained to the finish where they led the Peterborough/Leicester/Nottingham composite by two seconds with Windsor Boys School 11 seconds behind and Maidenhead a further seven seconds behind in sixth position.

In the junior quadruple sculls event Peterborough were clear winners five seconds ahead of Tideway scullers with Walton third.

Sixteen crews contested the elite coxless pairs where Cambridge University pulled away from the rest to beat Bristol City by 12 seconds and Poplar Blackwall by 21 seconds. Three Evesham junior pairs competed in the six-boat final to finish first, second and fourth.

Seven elite double scullers were due to contest the final but only two started and Leander came home easy winners over Burton Leander. In the junior event Burway led Maidenhead all the way to win a close race by six seconds.

Nine scullers contested the elite event where Coleman of Nottingham and Union won by 16 seconds over O’Donnell of University of London. He also competed in the senior 1 event where he was also the winner.