Cambridge ‘99 Rowing Club’s Will Young and Tim Wilkinson win prestigious Pairs Head of the River Race on the River Thames

The Cambridge ’99 Rowing Club crew of Will Young and Tim Wilkinson won this year’s edition of the Pairs Head of the River Race on the River Thames at the weekend.

The time-trial style race, which starts at Mortlake and finishes at Harrods Wall just after Hammersmith, is the annual go-to event for the most competitive doubles and pairs in the UK.

With the victory, Young continued an impressive year of successes, having previously won Wallingford Regatta, Metropolitan Regatta and Marlow Regatta and reaching the semi-finals at Henley Royal Regatta.

For Young and his partner Wilkinson – himself a highly established rower who has reached top three positions in many national and international tournaments and the semi-finals at Henley – the victory came after only their second race together. After reaching third place at last year’s Pairs Head event, the duo were the fastest crew on the day, beating a highly competitive field and leading their closest rivals Reading University by four seconds.

In a spectacularly close race, Nines also took home a category win, with the pair of John Harris and Richard Bolton beating their competition from Cantabrigian Rowing Club by just 0.2 seconds.

Other notable successes for Cambridge clubs included a win for the Rob Roy/City of Cambridge composite crew of Guy Blanchard and Chris Ware in the Masters D double sculls, while the Cantabs women scored two second places, narrowly missing out on wins in the women’s club and senior events for pairs.

Cantabs also secured second place in the open double sculls club category, and City of Cambridge came second in the women’s double sculls club event.