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National Schools’ Regatta

SPS won five gold medals and three silvers at this year’s National Schools’ Regatta – the school’s best-ever results.

The regatta started with 32 pupils racing on Friday 24 May.  The J14A crew raced a thrilling final, being bested by Hampton by less than a second to take silver in the First Octuples event.  The J14 B and C crews both made the final of the Second Octuples event.  The final was closely fought: the J14Bs finished a respectable 4^th, but the C crew produced the result of the day, taking silver, less than a second behind Hampton.  A J14D quad also raced, but was overmatched by many first and second boats from other schools and clubs.

The next day, J15s, J16s and senior crews were in action.  The J15D coxed four had a gutsy race and finished as the highest-ranked J15D crew in the regatta.  The J15C crew finished 9^th in the J15 Second Eights event, ranking them as the fastest C crew; the J15Bs won the J15 Second Eights event, crossing the line eight seconds ahead of Hampton to take gold.  The J15As completed the J15 clean sweep by winning the J15 First Eights event by six seconds from Hampton.

The J16A crew won their time trial, but had to take silver behind Radley in the J16 First Eights final.  The J16B crew finished eighth in J16 Second Eights.

The senior squad matched the J15s by taking a clean sweep of Third Eights, Second Eights and Championship Eights to claim all of the J18 eights titles.  This feat has been achieved on only four other occasions since the introduction of Championship Eights in 1971, and never before by SPS.  This is the fourth time the SPS 1^st VIII has won Championship Eights (2017, 2018 and 2019 were the others), but only the second time each of the Second Eights (2002) and Third Eights (2003) titles have come to SPS.

Metropolitan Regatta

Following its success at National Schools’ Regatta, the 1^st VIII raced at the Metropolitan Regatta on Saturday 1 June.  The crew finished fifth in Open Championship Eights, beating several university first eights and two seconds ahead of nearest junior rivals Westminster.