ROWING: THE King's School had some outstanding results at the Schools Head of the River races on the Thames last week.
The first eight finished seventh of the 256 boats and seventh in their 26-strong category on the same course as the Boat Race, only in the other direction. This was a significant improvement on the 15th place secured by last year's first eight.
The junior 16 eight paced their race well and overtook many who were struggling in the headwind.
They came third out of 19 in their grouping, despite one of the crew having been injured in a collision the previous day. Again, the result was an improvement on last year, when the J16s were eighth.
The second eight did extremely well and finished sixth in their group, despite having to cope with injury and use a borrowed boat following damage to their own in the previous day's collision.
For the first time, the school entered a women's event and were rewarded with a creditable 11th (out of 23) in the junior quad event.
This is the first rowing season for some of the crew, but now that the school is fully coeducational, a greater female representation is expected in future events.
Perhaps the most satisfying results of the day were the two wins recorded by the first and second junior 15 crews in fields of 30 and 12 respectively, and including all the big-name schools.
This is the first time King's had entered two eights in this age group and to have two winners augurs well for the future.
These are the same two crews beaten by University crews in the recent Dee North of England Head and they are showing the potential to be a great senior squad in a couple of years' time.
Over a shorter 2.5-mile course, the junior 14s finished in the top third in octuple sculls and coxed quad events, the latter coming home a couple of places ahead of local rivals Royal Chester.
