WOMEN'S EIGHTS HEAD

Mortlake to Putney

11 March 2006

When Jo Cook reported sick on the morning of the Head chief coach Mark Banks was left with a dilemma - to scratch the crew or find a substitute. Step forward Rebecca Romero, just three weeks after announcing her retirement from rowing and a full five months since the last time she sat in a boat! Taking her place in the 5 seat it meant that Laura Gater moved back to 3 and Alice Freeman to Bow, as the crew attempted to stave off the challenge of Thames, starting in second position, and the GB composite who started 169.

Starting at the top of the tide Leander were sent off the start almost twenty seconds clear of Thames, and the gap was virtually unchanged as they approached Barnes. But it was in the run down to Hammersmith that Thames coped better with the choppy water set up by wind-against-tide. With Leander at 31 and Thames at 33 the gap narrowed significantly and there was just over eight seconds between the crews over the line.

But further back down the field the Marlow-based composite, with six GB internationals on board including Katherine Grainger at stroke, were cutting through the field, and their finish time saw them take the Head pennant more than ten seconds clear of Thames, with Leander third. In fourth place was Osiris, the Oxford University women's Blue Boat, who finished 25 secs clear of their Cambridge counterparts with just three weeks to go before this year's Women's Boat Race.

Chief coach Mark Banks professed himself pleased with the Leander result. "To get that far with just three internationals on board, and one of them retired, is good. Five members of the crew are club athletes - it was their best row yet" he said.

Top Finishing Positions

Finish
Start
Club
Status
Time
Pennant
1
169
 Birmhm U/Mlw/Read U/Rebc/Thames/TSS
E
19:13.61
Head
2
2
 Thames A
E
19:23.79
Club
3
1
 Leander Club
E
19:31.16
4
10
 Osiris A
S3
19:38.10
University
5
3
 Nereus ASR
E
19:41.33
Overseas
6
6
 University of London A
S1
19:52.79
Senior 1
7
16
 Imperial College A
S2
20:01.93
Senior 2
8
4
 Cambridge University A
S3
20:05.13
Senior 3

Full details are on the Womens Eights Head website

Report by Leander Press Officer Robert Treharne Jones

Bow Alice Freeman
2 Vicky Myers
3 Laura Gater
4 Atlanta St John
5 Hilary Powell
6 Rebecca Romero
7 Anna Bebington
Stroke Debbie Flood
Cox Steph Richards
Cox Steph Richards glances down at her watch as she urges the crew on to greater efforts in the Women's Head.
(c) Peter Spurrier /Intersport-Images

ENDS