Leander and Henley triumph at record-breaking women’s regatta

LEANDER Club and Henley Rowing Club both picked up wins at last weekend’s best-attended Henley Women’s Regatta.

Friday started with time trials with all of Leander’s sweep boats progressing through to their first round of racing.

The club’s women’s pair gained a bye into Sunday’s racing where they defeated competition from University College Dublin, then Schuylkill Navy, USA, to progress to a final against Thames Rowing Club.

After a good fight and strong race plan, the Leander pair of Amelia Standing and Juliette Perry raced through to win the Redgrave Challenge Vase for championship coxless pairs.

Leander’s two women’s eights also had strong racing progressions with the second crew beating off international boats from Southern Methodist University and then faced tough opposition from Oxford Brookes B who knocked them out of the regatta.

The Leander first eight knocked out Thames B, Durham A and Newcastle A before facing a strong Oxford Brookes A crew in the final in which they were defeated.

Racing in the Avril Vellacott Cup for championship coxless fours, Leander had two crews competing.

Leander A defeated Molesey B before facing Leander B, who had beaten Upper Thames B the previous evening. Leander A progressed and continued to defeat challenges from Oxford Brookes A before beating Molesey A in the final by four lengths. This was Leander’s third successive win in this event.

The sculling squad started their racing on Saturday with a strong time trial from Leander’s two quads and a double.

The double progressed through the time trials before being knocked out by Molesey Boat Club.

The two quads had good campaigns with Leander A gaining a bye to face Leander B who had beaten Reading University to progress.

Leander A continued on to a the final against a composite from the GB Performance Sculling Academy in the Borne Challenge Cup, and despite a good race, Leander fell short of victory by just a quarter of a length.

Henley Rowing Club had five crews competing with four of them progressing from the time trials, the junior quad of Fran Reeves, Jess Mack, Tilly Mackenzie Smith and Leah Reddy being the crew not to qualify.

The J16 coxed four of Lucy Green, Jemima Painter, Lilian Graham, Martha Dickson and cox Elise Pindoria lost their first round race by a length to St Paul’s Girls’ School.

The Henley junior coxed four of Sophie Eltze, Nicolette Pagdin, Freya Smith, Sophia Spanswick and cox Matilda Ley progressed to the semi-finals, beating Bedford Girls in the first round and a Tideway Scullers’ School composite in the quarter-finals. The semi-final saw them lose to eventual winners Aberdeen Schools.

Henley’s junior eight of Gwennie Hunter, Chloe Hughes, Lilya Wild, Abi Smith, Emily Simmons, Tabby Hall, Freya Weiser, Emma Eltze and cox Ella Dickson had a comfortable win against Sir William Perkins in their first round race but lost to losing finalist Hinksey Sculling School in the quarter-final. The Henley J16 quad of Evie Meeks, Charlotte Tong, Jemima Butterworth and Molly Hall, had comfortable wins against an Ardingly/Globe composite first round and then Hereford Cathedral School in the semi-final. In the final Henley defeated a composite AB Severn/Stratford crew by one length to secure victory.

Shiplake College saw their girls’ quadruple scull crew make the quarter-finals while their eight reached the semi-finals. The eight of A Merritt, Sophia Foreman, Emily Over, Katie Proudlove, Amelie Parker, Emily Downing, Amelia Westbrook, Lara Vahl and cox Olive Joiner were defeated by the eventual winners Headington School. This strong performance, along with their results in previous competitions, was enough to see them pre-qualify for next week’s Henley Royal Regatta.

Elsewhere, Oxford Brookes University and Thames Rowing Club won the Colgan Foundation Cup for aspirational academic eights and the Copas Cup for aspirational club eights, respectively, each for a third year running.

Oxford Brookes also retained the Ron Needs Cup for championship eights. Meanwhile Wycliffe College’s outstanding crew made it back-to-back victories in the Bea Langridge Trophy for junior quadruple sculls.

Scottish crews showed their quality in the coxed fours events. Edinburgh University won the Frank V Harry Cup for development coxed fours once more, after lifting the trophy in 2023.

Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association won the Groton School Challenge Cup for junior coxed fours, for the second time in three years. Glasgow Academy won the event in 2021 and 2023, meaning there has been a Scottish stranglehold on this cup for four years now.

The Chairman’s Trophy for aspirational quadruple sculls stayed in the Netherlands, with ARSR Skadi from Rotterdam defeating 2023 champions USR Triton by just over 1.5 seconds.

Both championship single sculls races — the George Innes Cup and the Godfrey Rowsports Trophy — also went overseas. Sophie Egnot-Johnson of Waikato Rowing Club, New Zealand, won the openweight event while Riona McCormick of Schuylkill Navy High Performance Collaborative won the lightweight trophy.

This year also saw the return of the Grosvenor Cup for PR3 single sculls, won by Samantha Gough of St Andrew’s Boat Club in a record time of six minutes, 52 seconds. This was the only event with a new record during the weekend, thanks to a stiff headwind on Friday and Saturday and calmer conditions on Sunday.

The trophies were presented by former HWR chairman and Olympic silver medallist Miriam Luke, who told competitors that the regatta’s expansion to more than 2,300 athletes this year was a reflection of their hard work as well as the growth of women’s rowing.

She was joined by representatives of sponsors including the Copas family and the Colgan Foundation, as well as two-time Olympic and eight-time world champion Eric Murray, who presented Dart Totnes Amateur Rowing Club with the Haslam Trophy for championship lightweight double sculls.