Young rowers flocked to the Thames and Olympic rowing lake for the nation’s two championship junior time-trial races last week - the first time since spring 2019 that the events have gone ahead, reports Nick Hartland.

First up for the Wye juniors who travelled to London was the 314-boat Schools Head for eights and quad sculls on Monday over 3 3/4-mile reverse Boat Race course on the Thames Tideway in London.

Then two days later, it was the turn of the 523-boat Junior Sculling Head for quads and octuples over two 2km stretches of the Dorney Olympic lake.

In the Schools Head from Chiswick to Putney, Monmouth School for Boys’ 1st eight crossed in 18 minutes 32 seconds to place ninth out of 26 in school 1st 8s, three seconds back on Claires Court, Maidenhead, and 3.3 secs up on London’s Emanuel School, with Reading Bluecoat the overall winners in 17.45.

The U16s came seventh out of 11 in 20.02 just ahead of Dorset outfit Canford, while the U15s finished 11th in class in 21.49.

Monmouth School for Girls’ 1st eight, who are all first year-sixth or U16s, finished in a creditable 20.40 to place 11th in class.

But it was their U15 8 who produced the stand-out performance of the day, finishing second out of eight in their category by covering the course in 22.11, 41 seconds back on winners Sir William Perkins and nine seconds up on Mossbourne Rowing Academy.

Two days later, attention switched to the nearby 2012 Olympic rowing lake, where boats race from one end of the lake to the other, before a brief turnaround and race back.

Monmouth Comprehensive School boys’ open quad finished 19th overall in 12 minutes 52 seconds, just over a minute back on winners Windsor Boys’ School, with their second boat 30 seconds back in 24th.

The school’s top girls boat placed 26th out of 43 in the top event, crossing in 14.17, in a race won by Wycliffe College just over a minute up, while the 2nd boat crossed in 15.12.

The girls’ U16s were top-half finishers in their category, placing 19th out of 40 in 14.39, while the girls’ U15 coxed boat was 57th in its class in 16.53.

The school club, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and is one of the few state schools in the UK to row, also boated a boys’ U15 octuple - an eight-seat coxed scull.

They came 12th in their race in 15 minutes dead, beating top public school Royal Shrewsbury by two seconds, while the boys’ U15 coxed quad was 52nd crossing in 15.20.

* Monmouth Rowing Club is sending four eights to the Thames in London this weekend for the final two championship head races.

On Saturday, the younger senior men are set to take part in the Head of River Race - so named because it is the oldest rowing time-trial in the world, dating back to 1926.

Nearly 300 men’s 8s, including Olympians, will go off at 10-second intervals over the reverse 4 1/4-mile Boat Race course from Chiswick to Putney, where the Wye crew will start 80th between City of Cambridge and Molesey.

On Sunday on the same Tideway stretch, the club has three crews racing in the Vesta Veterans’ Head – a masters over-50 boat, a women’s masters’ over-50 boat and a mixed masters’ over-50 boat.

Some of the women rowers raced the course two weeks ago in the Women’s 8s Head.

The championship course goes in the opposite direction to the Oxford v Cambridge Boat Races, which return a week on Sunday (April 3) after relocating to the River Ouse in Ely, Cambridgeshire, last year.

As reported previously, Old Monmothian Jack Tottem was announced as the Oxford men’s cox earlier this month.