The Island Challenge Cup for student women’s eights was introduced to Henley Royal Regatta last year in part to improve the equality between men’s and women’s events available, but also with the hope of increasing the standard of women’s sweep rowing in the UK to feed through to the British Rowing Team.
The entry list consists of 43 crews, and shows the exciting direction that women’s student rowing is heading in. Furthermore, the Henley Stewards have chosen to increase the number of racing crews from 8 to 22, providing the opportunity for a greater number of athletes to compete in the main regatta. The entry list has a wealth of domestic and international crews, from nearby European countries, to clubs from North America and even as far as Australia.
Oxford Brookes University Boat Club
Last year’s winners, OBUBC are often regarded as the top of the crop for women’s sweep rowing, and have chosen to enter three crews into this event, giving an indication as to the depth of their squad. This eight is the same as the crew that claimed the gold medal at BUCS Regatta in the Women’s Championship Eight event over ULBC and Cambridge.
More recently, Brookes travelled to Germany to compete at the Ratzeburg Regatta, where they won, beating the German and Danish U23 crews in the process. This trip meant that they missed out on the Metropolitan Amateur Regatta, which could have afforded them a prime opportunity to test their speed against other crews entered into this event.
While it would not be odd to assume that their first eight, and maybe even second eight could progress quite far into the regatta, a recent upset at Henley Women’s Regatta has thrown some uncertainty into the mix. After choosing to paddle the time trial to preserve energy, hence not getting seeded, the championship eight came up against a fast Thames Boat Club eight in the first round and lost in a very tight race.
Being the experienced athletes they are known to be, I would expect this crew to move on from this result and try to step on over the next two weeks to put this result to bed, and keep their name at the top of the British university rowing scene.
University of London Boat Club
After an incredibly close final in this event last year, where ULBC lost to Brookes, the Tideway-based boat club have put down mark upon mark this season to say that they are the ones to beat, and I doubt that few would argue with saying that they may be the favourites to win this event out of the domestic crews entered.
While they missed out on the gold medal at BUCS, they were only three seconds off, and this was without their top two athletes Emily Lindberg and Georgie Robinson Ranger who were busy with Team GB trialling processes. The two were selected to travel to Seattle as part of a Team GB development women’s eight that raced in the Windermere Cup and beat the University of Washington boat.
When this crew finally came together to race at the Metropolitan Amateur Regatta, they won the Women’s Championship Eight event in confident style on both Saturday and Sunday. They were strong favourites to win the Ron Needs Cup for championship eights at Henley Women’s Regatta, and set some impressive performances against domestic and international competition, only being outclassed in the final by an impressive crew from Brown University.
Oxford University Women’s Boat Club
Taking a look at the crew list for their ‘A’ crew, it would appear that this Oxford boat contains several athletes who were part of the 2022 Boat Race squad, racing in the reserve ‘Osiris’ crew.
While the squad have not made many appearances at recent regattas such as BUCS and Met they did take part in the Regatta Sveti Duje in Croatia against Cambridge and Imperial, taking the win over their light blue rivals. This clearly proved good racing experience as four of the athletes from this crew helped to secure a further win over Cambridge in the semi final of the Academic Coxless Four event at Henley Women’s Regatta.
There is no doubt that they will go into Henley Royal Regatta on a high from these results after losing the boat race to Cambridge back in March.
Cambridge University Boat Club
Unlike their dark blue rivals from Oxford, this crew seems to be a bit more of a development crew, with under half the crew having competed in the Boat Race. However, given the competitiveness of the CUBC women’s squad this year, cemented in their winning of the Victor Ludorum at BUCS, I have no doubt that all of the athletes in this crew are of an incredibly high calibre and will have a lot of prior racing experience.
This eight has not raced yet this season, so similar to Oxford, there is an air of mystery, but strong performances at Henley Women’s Regatta suggest that they will be a quick crew, and not one that many will want to be drawn against.
Edinburgh University Boat Club
Edinburgh’s women in baby blue have gone from strength to strength this season, coming second at WEHORR back in March, before taking second place in the Women’s Victor Ludorum at BUCS Regatta.
Their ‘A’ crew seems to be slightly different from the crew that came fourth behind ULBC, Newcastle and Cambridge in the Women’s Championship Eight final at BUCS, suggesting that there could be even more speed to be shown. In addition to this, gains in speed will have been made on a training camp to Loch Oich and these were evident at Henley Women’s Regatta where their championship eight only lost narrowly to the Leander ‘A’ crew.
Out of the clubs that have chosen to enter more than one crew, I would not be surprised to see the Edinburgh ‘B’ crew make it through to the main draw in one of the five qualification spots, after taking bronze in the Women’s Intermediate Eight at BUCS, despite a blade coming out in the first 1km. Furthermore, this crew contains the four girls who won the Aspirational Quad at Henley Women’s Regatta in a very confident fashion.
Newcastle University Boat Club
Newcastle University are back fighting with the top dogs, getting faster and more competitive with every race they’ve done so far this regatta season.
At BUCS, their Women’s Championship Eight clinched fifth place in the A final, ahead of their rivals from the North, Durham, and they continued this form on the Sunday of the Metropolitan Amateur Regatta.
Whilst there have not been any medal winning performances as of yet, this crew seems to be a new combination, taking athletes who raced in different events at Henley Women’s Regatta including the Aspirational Academic Eight ‘A’, Championship Quad, and Coxless Four.
While I expect that Newcastle will be competitive in the Island Challenge Cup, they may find themselves knocked out in one of the earlier rounds, not due to a lack of ability, but simply in being outclassed by a stronger crew.
Durham University Boat Club
The so-called Palatinate army are continuing to reinforce themselves as a squad to be reckoned with this year.
Their 2021-22 season has consisted of numerous strong performances, both in the head and regatta season. At BUCS regatta, their Women’s Championship Eight came sixth in the A final, whilst at the Metropolitan Amateur Regatta, they came sixth in the A final of the women’s championship eights event, just ahead of Newcastle. This win over their northern rivals was further cemented when they beat the blue star in a tight race in the semi final of the academic eight event at Henley Women’s Regatta.
It may be starting to appear that Durham have the advantage of the two northern crews heading into the Island challenge cup, and will be keen to take bragging rights after playing bridesmaid all season long.
Imperial College London Boat Club
Throughout the 2021-22 rowing season, it has been exciting to see Imperial College London women’s squad once again competing in championship level events. This eight is a relatively new outfit, but is looking to be the best women’s student eight that Imperial has ever had.
They won the academic eight at Metropolitan Amateur Regatta and were the sixth fastest university crew at WEHORR. Despite this, the athletes named in this crew are the same as those who raced in the Women’s Championship Eight event at BUCS Regatta and only narrowly missed out on a place in the A final in what was incredibly tight racing. In addition to this, they won bronze in the Women’s Championship Coxed Four.
Most recently, the stern pair of Lizzie Witt and Laura Ellington reached the final of the Championship Pair event at Henley Women’s Regatta, narrowly losing to the Leander pair. Lizzie Witt was also the third U23 stroke sider at the April GB final trials, so is very well placed to stroke this eight.
University of California, Berkeley, USA
The University of California, Berkeley, also known as The Bears are making the trip over to the UK from the west coast of the USA, with the intention of dominating the international student rowing scene in the same manner that they have done on home soil.
The University of California is well known for recruiting international athletes to their squads, including a lot of young British talent. These recruitment programmes increase the pools from which athletes are selected from, and lead to incredibly strong and competitive squads.
At this years NCAA Rowing Championships, the Bears came in fourth place, only one second off the bronze medal that was claimed by Princeton. There is no doubt that the women in gold will thrive at the chance to settle this nail-bitingly close result and potentially come out on top ahead of their east coast competitors.
University of Washington, USA
Another famously strong women’s rowing programme on the west coast of America, this crew is host to a number of athletes with prior international racing experience, and will be a tough opponent to beat once they touch down on UK soil.
Unlike some of the other crews who have chosen to race both Henley Women’s Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta, the University of Washington women’s squad have instead chosen to do a training camp in Italy before travelling to England. This training camp will allow them to find those final few seconds of speed, and may even give an advantage in that they will not have to taper for two events that are so close together yet quite different in distance.
Yale University
This is a pretty tidy combination of 1V and 2V athletes from the Bulldogs. Their 1V finished second in the Petite Final of the Varsity Eight category at the NCAA Championships (eighth in the country overall) whilst their 2V established themselves as the undisputed fastest 2V in the USA, capping off an undefeated season with a commanding victory in the Grand Final of Second Varsity Eights at the NCAAs. This crew will undoubtedly be fast.
Princeton University, USA
Princeton University are making the trip across the pond following a racing season full of dazzling performances. Their varsity eight is currently ranked number one in the NCAA for their region after a performance in which they won the bronze medal in the Division 1 NCAA Rowing Championships.
It should be noted, that the athletes who make up this crew for the Island Challenge Cup are not the same as those in the medal winning varsity eight, as the programme has taken the decision to send over a ‘senior crew’ composed of athletes all in their final year at the university.
While it may not be their fastest possible crew, it would be wrong to doubt their ability to progress quite far into the regatta, beating some of the fastest domestic crews in the process.
Brown University, USA
Coming over from the East Coast of the USA, this Brown crew was expected to be quick, with a sixth place finish in the Varsity Eight at the NCAA D1 Rowing Championships.
However, they potentially caused one of the biggest upsets of Henley Women’s Regatta when they won the Ron Needs Cup for championship eights beating the likes of ULBC and Thames in the process. This was an incredible result that saw them break the event record and would suggest that since the NCAA Championships they have gained some serious speed that would make them faster than American rivals University of California.
Based off of this result, and a history of strong performances back at home I would say that Brown go into the Island Challenge Cups as strong favourites.
Sydney University Boat Club, Australia
Crews from Sydney have only been known to make the long trip over to Henley Royal Regatta when they trust their crews to have some serious speed that will take them far into the regatta.
While relatively little is known about this crew, their boat contains athletes with prior international racing experience and the club is well known for producing athletes that go on to represent Australia. Last year the club sent three female athletes to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with one bringing home a bronze medal. Most recently they won the title at the NSW Rowing Championships.
It is hard to know how this crew will fare against their international competition, but no one should strike them out as reaching the weekend of the regatta, and they have the potential to cause some shock results.
Amsterdamsche Studenten Roeivereeniging Nereus, Netherlands
The name ‘Nereus’ is very highly respected in the rowing world, with the club being one of the top rowing clubs for students in the Netherlands and perhaps the world. In bringing together students from several universities in the Amsterdam area, they gain access to a broad pool of athletes, which is hugely advantageous for improving the strength and depth of their squad. This depth is demonstrated in their decision to enter two crews into the event, not a decision to take lightly when undertaking a costly trip.
Unlike some of the other international crews, Nereus already have some idea as to how they fare against UK based universities, having taken part in some of the boat race fixtures earlier this year. Drawn up against the Cambridge Blue Boat, they put up a hard fought race on the Tideway, unfortunately just taking a loss. This result should not discount them from being tough opposition to face, as they are well known for their speed over shorter regatta ‘spring style’ races.
Prediction
This event promises to be an absolute nail biter, with close races expected through all rounds. No crew will go into the regatta anticipating any ‘easy’ races that will allow them to preserve energy. Out of the domestic crews, I would predict that Oxford Brookes and the University of London will progress the furthest, but with a wealth of international competition to fight against, they could find themselves knocked out in an earlier round depending on the draw.
All in all, the competition is looking to be fierce, and the international crews entered into this event all look to be incredibly strong, in particular Brown University who knocked British rowing stalwarts off their pedestal when they won Henley Women’s Regatta last weekend. This gives a strong implication that the title rights for the Island Challenge Cup could be heading stateside following the regatta.
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