York Small Boats Head 2018
York Small Boats marks the last Head Race for City of Sheffield Rowing club. The day resulted in Sheffield returning home with a win in five categories and impressive performances in many more.
The men's coxless 4 came first in their category and finished 7th overall of the 308 crews who raced on the day. The masters coxless 4, who entered the open event came fourth in the same open category showing good promise moving from a season in the coxed 4. Gareth Morris who rowed in the 3 seat of the winning boat also secured a win in the men's open single sculls from a field of 13 boats.
Sheffield's J17 sculler backed up her performance at Nottingham earlier this year with another win in a 5 strong competitive field.
The two women's masters 4x- boats secured both first and second place in the B/C/D/E category. Janet Vickers and Mandy Calvert who were part of the winning quad also picked up pots for winning the MasB/C/D/E 2x earlier in the day.
The women's squad produced some excellent performances most notably the women's coxed four, a relatively scratch crew with a suspiciously heavy cox, managed 2nd in their band and 6th of 23 in their category.
This crew also included Cat and Bridie who had previously secured 4th place out of 11 in the women's 2x beforehand.
The women's 4-, with yet another change to their lineup, put in another impressive performance gaining a second place finish amongst a field of 5 in the open category, showing demonstrating the squads huge strength in depth for this category. Again, this crew raced the 4- only after having competed in other boats earlier in the day. Meri and Sav competed in a completely scratch double gaining them a 3rd place finish in their band of 6, and Charlotte had previously coxed the W4x+ to a 3rd place finish in their category.
Other notable performances included MasB/C 4x- who were looking to continue their form after winning at Nottingham last month, managed a 3rd place finish in their category after a bad crash caused them to have to stop mid race on the final bend. WJ17 2x also secured an impressive 3rd place finish showing good progress for a crew that are relatively new to the sport of rowing.