New Record Set at Head of the River Fours

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Perfect Conditions for this year's Chiswick to Putney race

Near perfect racing conditions and some high quality international standard crews resulted in a new course record being set at the 52nd Fuller’s Head of the River Fours on Saturday.  

The record time of 17 minutes 21 seconds, over  the famous four and ¼ mile Championship course from Chiswick to Putney, was set by the Tideway Scullers Quadruple scull containing current world champion, New Zealander Mahé Drysdale;  Olympic Gold medallist, Slovenian Iztok Cop and GB internationals, Alan Campbell and Mike Hennessy. 

The Tideway Scullers quad, who started second, battled with last year’s winners Leander over the first half of the course, finally overtaking them near Hammersmith Bridge and going on to win by an impressive eleven seconds. 

Thousands of rowers in a total of 509 crews from across the UK and Europe descended on the river Thames raced to race in the event, each competing for one of the twenty available pennants. A Cambridge University coxed four was the fastest non-sculling crew, beating a Leander four which contained, Steve Williams, Alex Partridge and Peter Reed, three members of the world champion GB coxless four.

 Fuller's brewery has been associated with the race for the last 27 years and the prize giving will take place in the Hock cellar at their Griffin Road Brewery in December. 

The Pennant winners are listed below 

EVENT	WINNING CREW	BASED AT
Elite 4x-	TIDEWAY SCULLERS  I	Chiswick
Sen1 4x-	MOLESEY BC  I	Molesey
Sen2 4x-	IMPERIAL COLL  I	Putney
Elite 4+	CAMBRIDGE UNIV  II	Cambridge
Elite 4-	LEANDER  IV	Henley
Jun 4x-	HENLEY RC  V	Henley
Sen1 4-	OXFORD BROOKES  II	Wallingford
Sen2 4-	OXFORD BROOKES  V	Wallingford
Sen1 4+	UNIV OF LONDON BC  I	Chiswick
W Elite 4x-	MARLOW RC /THAMES RC	Marlow / Putney
W Elite 4-	LEANDER  X	Henley
Sen2 4+	OXFORD BROOKES  VII	Wallingford
Sen3 4+ (A)	ETON COLL  I	Eton
Sen3 4+ (C)	AGECROFT  IV	Manchester
W Sen2 4x-	READING UNIV  V	Reading
W Jun 4x-	MAIDENHEAD RC  II	Maidenhead
W Sen2 4+	OSIRIS  II	Oxford
W Elite 4+	THAMES RC  XIV	Putney
W Sen3 4+ (A)	CAMBRIDGE U W  V	Cambridge
W Sen3 4+ (C)	THAMES RC  XIX	Putney

November 24, 2006