Henley Royal Regatta 2024: Day two

8.30am:

Upper Thames Rowing Club beat Nottingham Rowing Club in the Wyfold Challenge Cup by one and three-quarters of a length in a time of seven minutes and 23 seconds.

The race judge said the Henley crew “rowed quickly and confidently” into a dominating lead.

Steve Griffiths, 29, said: “IIt was a race we were expecting to win so it’s good that we executed our plan. It’s what we wanted to do.

“We relaxed quite early on so I we wouldn’t have expected the time to be particularly fast as we did what we needed to do.”

Jordan Pepermans, 26, said: “The conditions were good. Yesterday, there was a little bit tail and cross winds and today was really flat. Rowing so early in the morning, the water tends to be more flat. There was a bit of a boat wash but overall it was good.

“You always have race nerves but you could be racing by yourself and you’d still have those race nerves. I like it because it gets my adrenaline up.

“Right now, we feel good but it’s a long regatta so we’re taking it day by day.”

Coach David Lister added: “It’s early days but it was a more controlled row than yesterday. The crew has only been together since Easter.”

7am:

WILL Satch is set to make his first competitive appearance at Henley Royal Regatta for years today (Wednesday).

He will be racing for Star and Arrow at 11.10am against a AKR Wurzburg and RG Speyer composite crew in the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, for men’s quadruple sculls.

Satch, 35, from Henley, who won Olympic gold in Rio in 2016, will be in the number two seat alongside Jack Beaumont (bow), Seb Devereaux and Sam Meijer (steer).

Beaumont, a former captain of Leander Club, won silver in the quadruple sculls in the Tokyo Games in 2020.

Meijer is a double world under-23 champion and world junior champion and is in the senior Great Britain team, alongside Seb Devereux.

There will be a total of 86 races across 12 events, starting at 8.30am, with the final contest at 7.30pm.

Henley Rowing Club and Leander Club will compete in their first races of this year’s competition.

Crews from Shiplake College and Reading Blue Coat School in Sonning will look to follow up their wins in Tuesday’s heats of their events while Upper Thames Rowing Club crews are also in action.

The weather forecast is overcast with a maximum temperature of 18c. The Met Office predicts a 40 per cent chance of rain at noon.

Upper Thames Rowing Club face Nottingham Rowing Club in the first race of the day at 8.30am in the Wyfold Challenge Cup, for men’s coxless fours.

Tom Wilkinson, the director of rowing at Pangbourne College and former student at The Henley College, is up against Askel Poulsen, of Denmark, at 9.15am in the Diamond Challenge Cup, for men’s single scullers.

Shiplake College meet Saugatuck Rowing Club, USA, at 9.30am in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, for first school eights.

Leander Club face The Ivy Club, USA, at 10am in the Remenham Challenge Cup, for women’s eights.

Reading Blue Coat School meet The Southport School, Australia, at 11.05am in the Princess Elizabeth.

Upper Thames “B” will face Marlow Rowing Club at 2.45pm in the Wargrave Challenge Cup, for women’s club eights who are not former or current internationals.

Leander Club “B” will meet a composite of Hapoel MC and Tel Aviv Rowing Club, Israel, at 3.40pm in the Visitors Challenge Cup, for men’s coxless fours.

A Henley Rowing Club and Drammen RK, Norway, composite face Leander Club “A” in the Visitors at 5.45pm.

Leander Club meet Lea Rowing Club at 6.35pm in the Thames Challenge Cup, for men’s eights.

Upper Thames “A” face Tyne ARC at 7pm in the Wargrave and Leander Club are against Agecroft RC in the final race of the day at 7pm, in the Prince of Wales.

This page will be updated with results and reaction throughout the day.