Rector presents the prizes at the Henley Royal Regatta

Imperial rowing teams perform special row past - News

Thursday 12 July 2007
By Naomi Weston

In celebration of the College’s Centenary, Rector Sir Richard Sykes, presented the prizes at this year’s Henley Royal Regatta.

Sir Richard presented the Regatta’s newest prize, the Prince Albert Challenge Cup - donated to Henley last year by the College and presented to the Regatta at Buckingham Palace in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen.

The Imperial Prince Albert crew reached the semi finals on Saturday but lost by half a length to Goldie Boat Club. The University of London team went on to win the Cup.

In addition, the Imperial rowing teams performed a row past on Saturday at the Regatta in celebration of the College's Centenary. The winning Ladies Plate team of 1992 and the Thames cup eight of 1995 took part. Imperial College is the only club to hold three current full course records, the third being the Prince Albert, a record they established last year. The two row past teams contained three of the Sydney gold medal eight from 2000 – Luka Grubor, Simon Dennis and Louis Atrill, who started rowing as a novice at Imperial. Another crew member, Steve Ellis, became part of the GB lightweight crew which won the World Championship gold in 1994.

Imperial is traditionally extremely strong in the field of rowing and the teams have won a number of times at the Henley Royal Regatta over the years. For example Imperial won the Prince Albert Challenge Cup in 2006.

Natural Sciences undergraduate, Jenny Forrester performed very well in Women’s Henley to make the final of senior singles where she lost by two and a half lengths.

The Rector commented at the Prizegiving ceremony: "We have seen some outstanding racing this week in taxing conditions. On behalf of all the regatta-goers, I congratulate you and your fellow Stewards on running an excellent event."

He added: "The importance of this Regatta and what it means to the life of our universities is what I wanted to briefly dwell on. Imperial College shares a deep bond with the Regatta. This event is, in many ways, as important to us as what we do in our lecture halls and laboratories. In fact, by my latest reckoning our oarsmen and women currently shade the 14 Nobel Prizes the College has won."