Rowing Update

Over the late May Bank Holiday weekend, 113 Paulines, constituting 14 crews, raced at the National Schools’ Regatta.

This is a larger number of pupils and crews than St Paul’s has ever put out before, and they came home with 63 medals in total: crews earned one bronze, five silvers and one gold. Every year group A crew either won its event or finished second, finishing no more than 2 seconds behind the winners – to understand the consistency behind such results, waving magic wand to gain SPS crews a total of just 5 seconds would have left the Boat Club with five gold medals. With some outstanding performances from B, C and D crews too, this was an excellent weekend for the Boat Club. This year, only St Paul’s can claim to have had a boat in medal contention in every eights event at this national regatta. 

• 1st VIII: silver behind St Edward’s School by 2.41 seconds
• 2nd VIII: silver behind Radley by 0.71 seconds
• 3rd VIII bronze
• J16A: silver, behind Eton by 0.53 seconds
• J16B: 4th, missing a medal by 2.62 seconds
• J15A: silver, behind Radley by 1.36 seconds
• J15B: 4th, missing a medal by 0.66 seconds
• J15C: 6th in the J15 Coxed Fours event, finishing behind only other schools’ first boats
• J15D: qualified for and finished second in the C final of the J15 Second Eights competition
• J14A: gold, re-gaining the title the school last won in 2018
• J14B: silver
• J14C: 5th in the A final of the J14 Second Octuples event, making them the second-fastest C crew in the event (behind Windsor Boys’ School)
• J14D&E: the D crew qualified for and won the D final of the quads competition; the J14E crew raced well in the time trial, representing the only E boat racing on the day

Metropolitan Regatta

The weekend after NSR, the 1st VIII went on to race in a new combination for the first time. At the Metropolitan Regatta, they finished as the fastest school, making the B final of the open championship eights competition. On the way to this result, they beat crews from many universities. The crew are now looking forward to Henley Royal Regatta (27th June-2nd July), where they will seek to go one better and retain the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup.