7 November 2016

Daniel Spring, press office of the 62nd Fuller’s Head of the River Fours, writes:

The 62nd Fuller’s Head of the River Fours (HOR4s), which takes place over the famous 4 ¼ mile championship course from Mortlake to Putney, returns to the River Thames in West London on Saturday, 12 November, at 1:15 p.m.

More than 1,800 athletes in more than 450 boats from across the UK and Europe will compete in quads, coxed and coxless fours.

This year’s Fullers Head of the River Fours sees no fewer than 17 Rio Olympians take on the championship course, including four gold medallists.

In the Elite Men’s Quads (M4X) Leander Club have three crews entered with Leander II (start number 4) featuring Olympians Jack Beaumont, John Collins and Jon Walton. Leander III (start number 6) also have three Olympians on board with Alan Sinclair, Pete Lambert and Will Fletcher. Starting one place behind Leander III is a crew from Sport Imperial, which includes Rio gold medallist Mario Gyr along with fellow Swiss Olympians Barnabe Delarze and Roman Roeoesli, the fourth member of this crew is GB’s 2015 World Champion, Sam Scrimgeour.

In the women’s event Leander VIII lead off (start number 48) with senior internationals Jess Leyden and Holly Nixon. They will be chased by an Imperial College/Putney Town composite featuring Rio silver medallist Zoe Lee and fellow Olympian Charlotte Taylor. In the Lightweight Women’s Quads, boat number 51 from Wallingford Rowing Club features two of the crew that won gold at the 2016 World Championship, Brianna Stubbs and Eleanor Piggott.

In the men’s coxless 4’s event, Leander again lead off with a boat full of Rio Olympians including three members of GB’s gold medal winning Olympic eight, Will Satch, Matt Gotrel and Tom Ransley. The fourth member of the crew is Stewart Innes, who narrowly missed out on a medal in the coxless pairs in Rio.

The Fullers Head of the River Fours also offers the first chance to see the full Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race squads go head-to-head over the Championship course. The Elite Men’s Coxed Fours sees four Cambridge crews (racing as Goldie) take on three Oxford boats (racing as Isis). The top Isis crew (start number 23) includes Dutch Olympic bronze medallist Olivier Siegelaar, U.S. Olympian Mike DiSanto and GB’s 2016 World Champion Oliver Cook. The top Goldie boat (start number 21) has a three graduates from U.S. universities, Henry Meek and Aleksander Malowany from the University of Washington and Tim Tracey from the U.S. Naval Academy.

In the women’s coxless fours three Cambridge crews take on a Leander crew containing two member of the GB crew that won gold in this boat class at this year’s World Championships. In the women’s coxed four event four Cambridge crews take on three from Oxford.

The Fuller’s Head of the River Fours, has always provided a great opportunity to see up-and-coming talent in the sport, as well as all the experienced international athletes who are competing against many of the rowers from UK’s top clubs, schools and universities. They are all hoping to win one of the 22 pennants on offer and a place at the HOR4s prize giving in the Fuller’s brewery in Chiswick.

It normally take crews between 17 and 30 minutes to go down the course depending on weather, fitness and skill. The organisers and competitors will be keeping their fingers crossed for good weather, to avoid a repeat of the 2009 cancellation due to poor conditions.

Spectating along the whole course is free, the racing will last a couple of hours and there are plenty of good viewing points from which to watch the action. Stalls selling refreshments and rowing related goods will be located outside many of the local Tideway clubs, especially along Putney Embankment and near Hammersmith Bridge.

Fuller’s Brewery has now been associated with this event for 35 years.

More details about the history of the race, a full start order and full crew lists, which are updated on a regular basis, are available on the event website: www.hor4s.com