After 2 years of cancellation, it was a great relief to the Scottish contingent that that the journey south was not in vain as the Head of the River Race went ahead in challenging conditions on Sunday. 11 crews from 8 Scottish clubs took part with some encouraging results across a number of categories.
Homegrown athletes made the headlines at the top of the results sheet. Alan Sinclair, formerly of Inverness and Aberdeen, and Callum McBrierty, a product of George Watson’s College, were part of a powerful Leander crew which stormed to the Headship by a comfortable 16 seconds in a very fast time of 17 minutes three seconds. Lewis McCue of Robert Gordon University pulled on the purple of the University of London to stroke a star studded crew including two World Champions to 7th place overall.
The battle of the Scottish Clubs was dominated by the two Edinburgh University senior crews. Split into lightweight and heavyweight, it was the lightweights who took the bragging rights with a 5 second margin over their heavyweight clubmates, the 2 crews finishing 27th and 31st overall.
Another close battle ensued between Clydesdale and Heriot-Watt University, 4 seconds separating the two with Clydesdale in 111th and Heriot Watt in 121st.
The Edinburgh University and Glasgow University beginners stoked the age old rivalry further, both crews putting in excellent performance to come 3rd and 4th of 43 entries in the Novice Academic category with Edinburgh just half a second ahead.

Scottish Crews:

Edinburgh University I (lwt, Intermediate 1) 18:09.97 27th
Edinburgh University II (Intermediate 1) 18:14.36 31st
Clydesdale (Intermediate 2) 19:15.30 111th
Heriot-Watt University (Intermediate 1) 19:19.84 121st
St Andrews University (Intermediate 3) 19:51.13 177th
Edinburgh University III (Novice Academic) 20:07.48 195th
Glasgow University (Novice Academic) 20:08.01 197th
Aberdeen University (Intermediate 3) 20:18.95 225th
Robert Gordon University (Novice Academic) 20:34.63 242nd
Aberdeen Boat Club I (Intermediate 3) 21:25.17 290th
Aberdeen Boat Club II (Novice Club) 23:21.62 326th