Fours Head of the River 2018

Three boats from Sheffield headed down to London to compete across both the annual Fours Head (Saturday) and the Vets 4's Head (Sunday) Races.

This is a challenging 4.25mile (circa 7km) race from Mortlake to Putney, representing the exact course of the famous "Boat Race", but in the reverse direction. This is a great chance for crews to test themselves at the national level against clubs they would not normally race during the regular season.

The men's 4- achieved a 3rd place finish in their category of which 27 boats raced. Finishing in a time of 20.58.3, just less than 10 seconds behind the category winners. This was a good result especially as the men had a crash about 1km from the finish line resulting in them having to stop rowing for a few strokes.

For the women's 4-, this was the first time each member of the crew raced at Fours Head. After a dominant 2017/18 season in the coxed four, the women have moved to the coxless boat with a somewhat new lineup. This new project earned them a 13th place finish in a time of 25:02.9.

On Sunday Janey Vickers and Mandy Calvert raced the 2x at the Vets 4's Head. Racing in the W E/F 2x, they clocked a faster time than all their competitors down the course (23:49.1), but were moved into second place after the application of Handicap.