Quintin Head race report

Congratulations to both our junior and adult crews that raced at Quintin Head on Saturday 20th January, the first big head race of 2024!

Here is a race report from Kate, who stroked the women's eight.

We decided to hit the sweep season ‘head’ on this year, starting our training campaign with a solid core crew of ladies in November of last year. With Deryn’s leadership and the help of Mel, Mark and our other great coaches, we were able to make a good start to the season with Quintin Head. 

Deryn kindly offered to cox our first race and kept us warm and upbeat for 2 hours on the freezing start line, whilst we watched almost 300(!) crews start ahead of us.

We went off smoothly, although with teeth chattering after having to de-kit. Deryn had already drummed our race plan into us and let the crew ahead get a proper head start so we had someone to chase! And so we did -  we chased down and overtook another crew, right at the midway point, just when we needed the morale boost. It got tough, but we kept our rate and splits up until Hammersmith Bridge came into sight, and the cheers of our friends and family helped us make the final ‘empty the tank’ push to the FRBC finish line.

It was exhausting but everyone came together and got us to the great result of 6th out of 20 in our division. (Not bad against the likes of Vesta, Imperial, and Bristol.) 

Onwards and upward to the next races - Molesey Head (17 Feb) and Hammersmith Head (18 Feb) - pop by to give us some much-appreciated support if you can!

Thank you to everyone who has supported our sweep efforts so far.

GO FULHAM REACH!

Kate, Linnea, Mel, Farah, Abi, Jean, Agathe, Mirry and Deryn.