Hampton rowing welcomed 2,196 young rowers in 549 boats from 53 schools and clubs across the country to this year’s Hampton Fours and Eights Head. The Hampton Head, which has been running for over 50 years, is one of the most prestigious events of the spring rowing calendar and is the first major race of the year for many of the leading junior crews.
The annual event involves a 3,000m time trial from Sunbury Lock to Hurst Park. Crews navigate the route one after the other, with their individual times recorded and medals awarded to the highest placed finishers. The weather was almost perfect for the occasion with sunshine for much of the day, and the excellent river conditions led to many exciting performances from the young athletes. Spectators made the most of the clear blue skies, as they lined the banks of the River Thames to show their support for the junior oarsmen and women.
Hampton’s 16 crews put in a series of strong performances throughout the day. In the senior squad, Captain of Boats, Jake Murray, finished first in the J18 coxed four, along with James Radford, Jake Green, Alex Cresswell and cox Abhay Bahl, a feat matched by the J18 coxless four of Arjun Kang, Charlie May, Alex Duguid and Toby Gwynne. In the junior categories, there was also victory for the J14 octuple sculls of Lewis Warms, Alex Nelson, Max Carter, Henry Clark, Monty Hunt, Leo Robertson, Mitul Aggarwal, Freddie Mundell and cox Ben Knight.
There were also encouraging performances for the J15 2nd VIII who won a silver medal, a fourth place finish for our J18 2nd VIII and two fifth place finishes for our J15 1st VIII, as well as in the J18 coxless pairs event.
Hampton’s Director of Rowing, Mr Colin Greenaway, was delighted with the success of this year’s Hampton Head:
Back to All ArticlesIt was wonderful to see so many young athletes racing and enjoying themselves, especially after a couple of difficult years where most events were cancelled for the U14 and U15 age categories. The standard was extremely high with some very strong performances from a large number of clubs and schools. All the rowers were a credit to their coaches and clubs who will have put a lot of effort in developing their skills and athleticism enabling them to race.
