Hats off to the Henley Women's Regatta organisers for keeping the regatta running so smoothly. That weekend the river was extremeley high and there were some hideous winds that almost forced the regatta to cancel. The regatta organisers did a fantastic job to keep it running despite the conditions. Although there were no record times set Finals day on Sunday turned out to be a great day, cementing the regatta's 25th anniversary.
We entered the Elite doubles comepetition as the last chance we had to race another double side by side before the European Championships in September (pending selection). We also boated our Leander Henley Royal quad for the first time! Our quad line up is our European double, and Rachel Gamble-Flint and Sarah Cowburn who raced a double at the U23 World Rowing Championships last year.
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| This is a shot early on in the race of our Leander quad, on the right in the white boat, racing Vesper USA |
Because of how the draw worked out, Tina and I had four races on Sunday! Henley Women's Regatta (HWR) is only a 1500m course, considerably shorter than our usual 2km race length.
Our semi finals were not too taxing in either boat, although we had poor starts in both of them and had a little ground to make up.
The final of the quads we raced Vesper USA. We
had a few steering warnings off the start so they just managed to slip ahead of
us by the end of the island. Once we had found our rhythm (and station!) we
managed to sit ahead of them to the finish. It was great racing the Henley
stretch, we were loving the home advantage. We finished over a length ahead of Vesper.
In the doubles final we raced Rowing Ireland. This was our 4th race of the day and we both were feeling it in the legs. It was a solid win, over 3 lengths ahead, and good to get some last bit of racing in the double before we start our Europeans training.
It was great to assert our dominance in this regatta, and racing in the Elite category we met international crews in both events.
Sir Steve Redgrave was there for the prizegiving...
And this is a shot
of our double winning the final against Rowing Ireland. We are on
the left. Photo taken from the umpires launch...
Now we will be
concentrating on the quad for the next 10 days to get us up to speed for the big
event: Henley Royal Regatta! This is a massive event in the social and rowing
calendar, and a great opportunity for us in Olympic year to have a shot at
winning whilst the Olympic crews are away preparing for the 2012 Games.
Follow us on twitter:
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| Waiting to be checked by a marshall before the semi final of 4x |
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| Racing the final of the 4x |
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| Paddling to the start of the semi final, thank you to Buff and Headsweats! |
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| Off the start of the 2x Final |
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| Happy winners of Elite quad. L-R
Tina Stiller, Erica Bodman, Rachel Gamble-Flint, Sarah Cowburn |
Thanks to 110% Play Harder, Headsweats, SunSense, Faith in Nautre, Hunter and Buff for their product support!
Nice post about Rowing race.I like this race very much.I wish i could b part of this type of event. hats
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