The Fuller’s Head of the River Fours Race took place last weekend with over 400 crews competing in the first of this year’s major head, held in London on the 4 1/4 mile course on the River Thames. Henley had several teams compete, with a number of Henley College students from the Elite Sport Programme included in these races.
Henley Rowing Club had 5 girl crews racing containing a number of members currently on the Henley College Elite performance rowing programme.
Competing in the junior girls squad, Maddy Pollard, Charlotte Rowley, Sophia Hahn and Daisy Bellamy (Henley College Elite), won the event making it Henley’s fifth win in a row.
In the coxless fours event the Henley crew of Hannah Hills, Holly Cookson, Emma Berry, Carla Russell, were a close second to Lea RC. In the Championship coxed fours the Henley Crew, Charlotte Williams, Issy Bird, Della Luke, Pheobe Fletcher and cox Ella Nolson took third place.
In the “Challenge” event for coxed fours the younger members of the junior squad Sophie Underwood, Izzy Cotton, Georgie Pollard, and Emilia Fulford Dobson put in a good performance to finish a close second behind Marlow.
Next, 8 of our male students represented Leander Club. The race features the best in the sport including Olympic and World Champions. In Leander’s top junior crew; Miles Devereux, Joe Murphy, Joe Willis and Tim Eilers put in a dominant performance to win the Junior Pennant by 23 seconds.
In addition to being the fastest junior crew of the day, their time ranked them 14th out of the 480 crews that raced. This outstanding performance was topped off the second crew; Alex Pikelis, Stephen Hughes, Alex Milne and Paul Hoeselbarth, who overtook all their competition to be the 2nd fastest junior crew of the day.
The Leander 1 and 2 is a reflection of the boy’s hard work and the support provided by Henley College’s Elite Rowing Programme, the athletes at Leander are now preparing for GB trials in mid-November.
