Round up of all the action at the Henley Rowing Regattas

All the action from Henley Women's Regatta, the Henley Royal Regatta and a boat naming ceremony.

Imperial College Boat Club sent several teams to compete in the recent Henley Rowing Regattas – the Women’s Regatta on the 16-18 June, and the Henley Royal Regatta  28 June – 2 July. Here’s a round-up of the best of the action.

Henley Women’s Regatta

The women’s boats did exceptionally well, getting into three finals on Sunday – however, the tough competition meant they were unable to translate their success into any wins.

The Elite Pair and Elite Single produced one of their best perfomances of the season in the semi-finals earning them a sport in the final.

The Senior Coxless Four looked strong in their semi-final in what was a seriously competitive field – this event went from coxed to coxless this year and has clearly attracted more serious crews as a result.  They had a fast start in their final, however were out of contention after the first few minutes, although they raced it to the line in true ICBC fashion. 

The Academic Coxed Four lost to the eventual winners University of London. Like the other four they raced it to the line, and produced their best performance of the year so far.

A fantastic finish to the year by the women’s squad.

Henley Royal Regatta

Just a few weeks after the Henley Women’s Regatta, Imperial College Boatclub once again descended upon Henley this time for the Henley Royal Regatta.

In the Prince Albert Challenge Cup, our top student boat rowed by scholars Tristan, Toby, Ollie, Jack and Chris lead off from the start and broke some course records early in the race. Despite this, Newcastle University Boat Club fought hard to keep in the race and set a new course record in order to narrowly beat our crew.

The Wyfold Challenge Cup saw Sport Imperial Boat Club beat The Tideway Scullers' School to win the event in a time of 6.39. Congratulations to Josh, Sam, Matt and Matt who dominated this event and showed real grit and determination to come away with the win.

Our final success came in the Womens 8’s Remenham Challenge Cup. Rebecca Shorten, representing Imperial College Boat Club as part of the Leander Club and University of London crew lost to Waiariki Rowing Club (the NZL national team boat) by just 2/3 of a length.

Boat naming ceremony

Another introduction also took place at Henley Royal Regatta: the naming of the new women’s 1^st team 8-person Hudson 8 boat. James and Paula Stirling were in attendance and following a speech by former ICBC chair Bob Schroeter, the boat name was revealed to be Alison McGregor in honour of the Professor of Musculoskeletal Biodynamics in the Department of Surgery and Cancer and who also sits as Boathouse Chair. We look forward to seeing the boat in action next season.

A big congratulations to all our students who participated and worked hard and persevered amongst tough competition.