The 37th Henley Women’s Regatta got going on Friday, 20 June with the first of three packed days of racing.
A morning of time trials, which eliminated boats across the development, aspirational and championship categories, was followed by thrilling side-by-side heats.
The Ron Needs Challenge Cup for championship eights had attracted a record entry of 29 boats, and with only 16 going through to the heats that meant 13 quality crews found themselves derigging early.
Among those missing out were US crews Cornell University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but the UK’s top university and club crews progressed to side-by-side racing, along with Australia’s Mercantile RC.
After the first round, the eight crews left in comprised two boats from Molesey BC, two from Thames RC, two from Leander Club, plus Oxford Brookes University BC ‘A’ and Newcastle University BC ‘A’. They race again on Saturday for a place in the semi-finals.
The Frank V Harry Cup for development coxed fours is always one of the most hotly contested events at HWR, and this year was no exception with just 16 crews from 44 racing progressing from the time trials. The resulting draw was dominated by university boats – only Lea RC, Agecroft RC and City of Cambridge RC made it to the heats, with Lea and Cambridge progressing to the quarter-finals.
The race of the day was the first side-by-side heat between St Andrew BC and Vesta RC ‘B’ in the Copas Cup for club eights. Vesta had a superb start and led by about ¾ length coming into the spectator zone, but St Andrew kept nagging at them and started to move as they came past the Barrier – about 650m into the race. Through the boating area the Scots kept gaining on Vesta, and had enough in the tank to claim the narrowest of victories over the line and progress to race Marlow RC ‘A’ on Saturday.
Saturday’s racing begins at 09:20 with timetrials for junior and some championship events. The side-by-side racing starts at 12:12 with quarter-finals for the Fiona Dennis Trophy for aspirational lightweight single sculls.
