LAST year’s Henley Royal Regatta had everything except for sunshine.
Racing was postponed for the first time in its 160-year history, two crews were disqualified for foul play and a dead heat was recorded in the Fawley Cup.
Henley’s resident rowing crews didn’t fair too badly either.
Leander Club continued its dominance of the competition by winning four trophies.
The crews braved blustery conditions and torrential rain to take home the Thames and Remenham cups, the Ladies’ Plate and the Diamond Sculls — the biggest trophy haul by any one club last year.
Henley Rowing Club continued its resurgence after tasting glory in the Thames Cup in 2005 by starring in the heats on the opening day, winning three out of its four races.
It continued to punch above its weight with the Henley Rowing Club ‘A’ crew providing one of the highlights of the regatta. Having to qualify on the Friday before, they made it to the semi-finals of the Britannia Cup.
Meanwhile, surprise package Upper Thames Rowing Club reached its first Henley final in the Princess Grace.
The entire five-day event was dogged by bad weather and made for inconsistent and slower times than usual and it was the rain that provided the biggest talking point.
Regatta stewards took an unheard-of decision to postpone racing after the final of the Grand on Sunday for 40 minutes due to fears for the safety of the competitors during a torrential downpour that included thunder and lightning.
This led to criticism by some competitors who believed that their races should have gone ahead as planned and felt that their preparation was hindered, leading to below-par performance.
One of the great spectacles of last year was witnessing a Leander Club and Sir William Borlase’s G.S. composite compete twice in the same day against a Peterborough City and Nottingham RC composite after a dead heat in the Fawley Cup. Leander lost the re-race, leaving its victors to compete in a third race that evening to make it into Sunday’s final.
The world’s most famous rowing club hit the headlines again when its ‘B’ crew was disqualified for “cutting up” opponents, causing them to collide with a boom.
Scandal continued to rock the regatta when German crew Crefelder Ruderclub were disqualified for fielding an ineligible competitor against the City of Oxford.
The German eight beat their English counterparts by two-and-a-half lengths but were thrown out after it was revealed that their crew possessed a world under-23 championship medal winner.
The Henley Royal Regatta, which hosted 500,000 spectators over the week, was closed by Lord Colin Moynihan, the chairman of the British Olympic Association, who made the presentations.
He coxed the GB men’s eight to silver in the 1980 Moscow Olympics and earned another silver with the crew in the world championships the following year.
Lord Moynihan praised the organisation of the regatta and said it was internationally regarded as the best regatta in the world, an example by which all Olympic rowing events are structured.
View more photographs
Published on 06 July 2009
|
