Henley Women's Regatta

Last weekend was Henley Women's Regatta, and I competed in Elite Eights, rowing for Reading University Boat Club in a composite 'European Eight' boat.  This eight I've been rowing in has been put together by GB Rowing, it includes a group of about twelve women and is aiming for selection for the European Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 16-18th September.  Different combinations of women have rowed in the eight at the Met regatta, Henley Women's and are planned for the Holland-Bekker regatta in Amsterdam and Henley Royal Regatta.

We first raced on the Sunday morning of Henley Women's Regatta, drawn against the Princeton University Varsity crew.  They had been unbeaten this season and had posted times in racing that matched ours.  The University paid for the Princeton crews to come over to the UK and race, so they had a lot riding on their performances.  We were pretty psyched for our first race and thought that it could be anyone's call as to who won.  We got off to a poor start, and the Princeton Crew had maybe half a length on us by the end of Temple Island; about 200m into the race.  Shortly after this one of the girls in our crew caught a massive crab (Crab, or Catch a Crab

A rowing error where the rower is unable to timely remove or release the oar blade from the water and the oar blade acts as a brake on the boat until it is removed from the water. This results in slowing the boat down. A severe crab can even eject a rower out of the shell or make the boat capsize (unlikely except in small boats). Occasionally, in a severe crab, the oar handle will knock the rower flat and end up behind him/her, in which case it is referred to as an 'over-the-head crab.') 

and we almost saw the race run away from us.  I must admit, I thought that was it!  Yet we recovered as quickly as we could, the offending blade was finally extracted and we fought our way back into the race.  We found a great rhythm and somehow clawed back the distance between us and the Princeton crew.  Every stroke we got ourselves closer to them, but they also got themselves closer to the finish line!  At only 1500m long the Henley Women's course is shorter than the normal summer regatta length of 2km, and we were only too aware of how little time we had to make up the distance.  Our cox Zoe De Toledo was telling us we were moving on them, but I didn't believe it until I saw the stern of their boat in my peripheral vision.  Then it seemed as if we suddenly broke them, we had one seat, and then another, we were level and then we were trying to put as much distance between us before the finish line! The verdict at the finish was a win by 3/4 of a length.

In our final we raced the U23 GB eight, who we have raced a few times this season and have always beaten them.  Due to illness and injury though we had a couple of subs in our boat, and the U23 boat had strengthened their boat with a couple of girls who had been away at american universities.  We got a good race, both crews rowed strongly and we won by one and a third lengths.  This was my first win at Women's Henley and it was very exciting!

Next on the agenda is Amsterdam, the Holland Bekker Regatta.  I leave first thing tomorrow and will update this when I have a moment when I get back!