HEAD OF THE RIVER RACE
25 March 2006
One of the strongest Italian challenges for some years failed to wrest the Head pennant from Leander, whose world and Olympic medallists were released from international training in just sufficient time for the crew to do some serious work as an eight in advance of Saturday's race. Thirty seconds behind them, in fifth place, were Leander II, but the lightweights, rowing as Leander III, had to concede the lightweight pennant to a very strong London RC crew.
With Steve Williams in the stroke seat, backed up by his fellow world champions Alex Partridge and Pete Reed at 7 and 5, and with Tom Stallard newly recovered from illness moving in at 6, the stern four of Leander I was bound to impress. Setting off ahead of the field of 406 crews the eight looked to have increased their lead at Hammersmith as the two Italian crews - Fiamme Gialle and Imperial College I - chased the title along with Molesey and Oxford Brookes. The final times gave Leander the title by three seconds ahead of Fiamme Gialle, while Molesey, stroked by Andy Hodge, were another eight seconds astern.
If the dominance of Leander I was expected, the performance of their clubmates in Leander II was rather less predictable. Starting ninth, behind the Spaniards of Real CN de Vigo, they set a solid rhythm which gave them fifth place overall, beating both Tideway Scullers and Oxford Brookes in the process, and winning the Senior 1 pennant.
It was the lightweights in Leander III whose line-up suffered most from winter viruses, and with only four outings before race day they knew they had a battle on their hands. It wasn't all bad news - the recent arrival of Olympic gold medallist Stephen Moelvig from Denmark, now studying at Oxford; captain Mark Hunter, a veteran of so many Head races, in the stroke seat; and the experienced Tideway cox (and Telegraph rowing correspondent) Rachel Quarrell to steer them on the best of the stream. But the very fast London lightweights had the edge - although Leander moved up four places it was London who finished sixteen seconds faster to take sixth place overall, and the lightweight pennant.
Report by Leander press officer Robert Treharne Jones
All photos copyright Peter Spurrier/Intersport Images
Full results can be found on the Head of the River Race website
Leander I
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Time: 17 mins 28.50 secs
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Finished: 1 (Started 1) | |||
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Toby Garbett Steve Williams |
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| Leander II | ||||
| Time: 17 mins 51.50 secs | Finished: 5 (Started 9) | |||
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Ian Lawson Nick Lloyd |
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| Leander III | ||||
| Time: 18 mins 12.41 secs | Finished: 13 (Started 17) | |||
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Andy Dax George Byrne Al West Rasmus Hjortshoj Stephan Moelvig |
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