Holders: Oxford Brookes University
Entries: 12 (to be reduced to 8 by qualifying races)
Hot favourites for this event will be the University of California, Berkeley. They have eight of the nine athletes from their Varsity 8 that won the IRA Championships this season. This crew includes two Tokyo Olympians, Gennaro di Mauro of Italy, who finished eighth in the M1X, and Angus Dawson of Australia (who rowed in the Aussie M8 in Tokyo). The crew also includes three U23 medallists, Oliver Maclean who won gold for New Zealand in the BM4+, Tim Roth from Switzerland (bronze in the BM2X) and Iwan Hadfield from Monmouth who won bronze in the BM4+. Also in the crew are Junior World medallist, Campbell Crouch from New Zealand and Elliot Kemp from Ranelagh School in Bracknell (which just so happens to be where my kids go to school!) The only member of the crew he didn’t race in the Varsity Eight at the IRA’s is Olaf Molenaar of The Netherlands. A winner of the Prince of Wales in 2018 he raced at the 2018 U23 World Championships in the BM1X finishing 13th. He rowed in the Cal 2V at the IRA’s picking up the silver medal.
Runners-up to Cal at the IRA’s were Yale University. They have also made the trip to Henley, but it’s with a very different crew to the one that raced IRA’s. It’s a mix of the Yale first, second and third Varsity boats, and a crew with very strong British connections, with four of the boat hailing from these shores along with an Irishman, a Swiss, and Aussie and an American. The Brits are Joe Long, (a Henley finalist in 2019 in the Fawley with Henley RC), Patrick Craig (a former Dulwich College pupil), Noah Norman (an U23 world Champion from Eton) and Freddie Elwes (younger brother of British Olympian, and Yale alumni, Charlie). Irishman Daire Lynch is in the two seat; he represented Ireland at the 2020 European Championships winning bronze in the M2X. Switzerland is represented in the boat by Andrin Gulich; he rowed in the Swiss M4- at the Tokyo Olympics finishing ninth. Both Gulich and Norman rowed in the first Varsity at the IRA’s and delivered a dominant performance in the Harvard v Yale race. Jack Morton is the sole US native in the boat – he rowed in the winning second Varsity crew at the IRA’s as did Lynch. The Australian in the boat is Alex Jeremijenko from Brisbane. Craig, Elwes and Jeremijenko were members of the third Varsity which also won their category at IRA’s. Whilst this combination might not be as rapid as the full Yale Varsity boat, they are still going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Another US Varsity boat entered in the Ladies Plate is Dartmouth, the “Big Green”. They won the Petite Final at the IRA’s (in a time that would’ve placed them fourth in the Grand Final). Dartmouth come to Henley with just one change to their IRA Varsity line-up, and, somewhat unusually for US collegiate crews these days, is majorly US athletes. Just two of the crew, James Isles from Australia, and Gustav Arvidsson of Sweden are non-US athletes. They join Harrison Taylor, Miles Hudgens, James Hudgins, Caleb Edmundson, Will Bender, and the one non-first Varsity oarsman, Jo Hajjar (who rowed in the bronze medal winning 2V). The “Big Green” will be expecting to do well in Henley and will also be hoping the luck of the draw will pit them against Yale at some point, in what could well be one of the races of the regatta.
But, this event isn’t just about US Varsity crews. Leander will be leading the charge for the home crowd. They last won this event in 2016 and their crew for 2022 is filled with Henley and international experience. Ryan Todhunter earned his first senior vest for GB at the Sabaudia World Cup last year, finishing sixth in the M2- with clubmate, James Vogel. Felix Drinkall is a former Oxford Blue and U23 World Champion. Ed Grisedale won this event with Oxford Brookes in 2018 and was a member of the GB U23 team in 2014. Dan Graham raced at the 2019 European U23’s winning a bronze in the BM8. The core of this crew raced at the Metropolitan Regatta, winning gold in Championship Eights.
Leander are also entered as part of a composite with Thames Rowing Club. This is another boat full of British athletes studying at US Colleges. Ed Roy and Harry Geffen (2V) are at Yale, Connor Brown is at Brown, Adam Oliver at Temple (1V), Jo Willis at Syracuse (1V) and Max Derring and Felix Rawlinson at Dartmouth (2V). This is a GB development squad crew.
The final pre-qualified crew in this event are the Dutch from KSRV Njord & Maastrichtse Studenten Saurus. This crew raced at the ARB Bosbaan Regatta at the start of June, winning gold. Although listed in the Henley programme as a two-club composite the crew is actually formed from seven clubs, Njord, Orca, Theta, Saurus, Proteus-Eretes, Aegir and Phocas and is a Dutch development squad crew. The crew consists of Luc Cornielje (Saurus), Thijs Tass (Njord), Hessel van Vilstreen (Phocas), Wessel Hesselink (Aegir), Vosse Meijessen (Proteus), Nykle Krijgsveld (Saurus), Dolf Rutten (Njord) Robert Tiemeijer (Theta) and cox Aniek van Veenan (Orca and cox of the Netherlands W8 which won gold at the Belgrade World Cup). They also all raced for their respective clubs in the famous Varsity regatta in April, with the four from Saurus finishing third. They’ve been the fastest Dutch crew on their home turf at the last three regattas.
The other boats in this event will all have to race the Qualifiers on Friday with two crews from six getting through to the main draw. The Molesey Boat Club & Mercantile Rowing Club includes, as with many UK club boats, a number of US based athletes returning to race for their clubs. This boat, coxed by Great Britain international Mathilda Horn, raced at Marlow regatta last weekend finishing fourth.
The Thames Rowing Club & Army Rowing Club also raced at Marlow and finished two places and two seconds behind the Molesey/Mercantile crew. Qualifying between these two boats is going to be tight. The Doncaster Rowing Club & Walton Rowing Club crew have a couple of recent internationals on-board. At stroke is George Rossiter who raced for GB at the 2019 Europeans and the World Cup series. At six is Frazier Christie who raced in the M2X at the 2017 Europeans. Also trying to qualify are Thames and an Oxford University college composite from Green Templeton and St Catherines. My money is on Thames/Army and Molesey/Mercantile to grab the two places in the main draw.
Predictions: I really can’t see anyone beating Cal, but the big question is who faces them in the final. It may depend on the draw and there should be some cracking races, especially if Dartmouth face Yale.
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