Holders: Leander Club
Entries: 9
This event sees the national squad crews from Great Britain, China, Australia, The USA along with some of the top club crews in the country and one of the top US Collegiate boats.
Henley will see the season’s debut for a Great Britain Women’s Eight, racing as Imperial College and Leander Club. This crew is made up of the top women’s sweep boats from the Belgrade World Cup, Rebecca Shorten, Heidi Long, Rowan McKellar and Sam Redgrave from the gold medal W4- and Emily Ford and Esme Booth from the gold medal winning W2-. They are joined by Rebecca Edwards (who last raced in the Eight at the Tokyo Games) and the former U23 World Champion, Lauren Irwin, in the stroke seat. Mckellar and Shorten were both members of the W4- that finished fourth in Tokyo. Long and Redgrave made their senior debuts last season finishing fourth in the W2- at the third World Cup. Long, Redgrave and Irwin were all in the Leander crew that won this event last year. It’s exciting to see a strong GB Women’s Eight, especially after the disappointing performance in Tokyo and it’ll be interesting to see if they remain as an eight for the rest of the international season, or, indeed do any doubling-up in the pair and four. But, given neither the W4- or W2 are racing in Henley it would suggest the eight will be the crew for the next World Cup.
Rowing Australia have made a number of changes to the crew that finished third at the Poznan World Cup, and, like the British, have strengthened the boat by bringing in experienced athletes from their W4-. Bronwyn Cox, Lucy Stephan, Katrina Werry and Annabelle McIintyre won the W4- in Poznan in convincing style. Stephan and McIntyre were also in the W4- that won gold in Tokyo with Cox, Werry Georgina Rowe and Georgia Patten all from the Eight that finished fifth at the Olympics. In the stroke seat is Emma Fessey who won bronze in the Eight at the 2018 World Championships. The least experienced member of the crew is Ella Bramwell from Adelaide Rowing Club who made her international debut in Poznan. Australia has won this event twice (in 2001 and 2018) and will probably start as marginal favourites this year to take their third title.
The USA (racing as Princeton Training Centre & Advanced Rowing Initiative of the Northeast) are following the trend of the British and Aussies of combining crews that raced in smaller boats at the World Cups. Jess Thoennes, Kelsey Reelick, Kristina Wagner & Charlotte Buck finished fourth in the W4- and Maddy Wannamaker and Claire Collins won silver in the W2- with Allyson Baker and Regina Salmons in fourth. Six of the crew raced at the Tokyo Olympics with Thoennes, Buck and Salmons in the Eight that finished fourth, Wanamaker and Collins the seventh-placed W4- and Wagner fifth in the W2X. Princeton Training Centre last won this event in 2016 and will, no doubt, take issue with my nomination of Australia as slight favourites!
The Chinese National Rowing Team are one of the few nations racing at Henley that competed at both World Cups so far this season. They had two eights racing in Belgrade and the crew for Henley is a mishmash of both those boats. In Poznan they had two fours and two pairs racing and their second four and both pairs move into the eight for Henley. From the four, who finished eighth in Poznan, is Hairong Zhang, Mangyao Dai, Yixin Yang & Yuxia Zu. The two Chinese pairs finished sixth and seventh in Poznan with Xinyu Lin and Xiaoxin Liu in the stern pair having finished sixth in Poznan and Shuxian Zhang and Yihui Wu seventh sitting at five and six. The Chinese are possibly the weakest of the national team crews in the event but will be expecting to reach the semi-finals (assuming the draw doesn’t place them against one of the other national squad boats in the earlier rounds).
The other all-foreign entry in this event is the University of Washington. They come to Henley with eight out of nine of their Varsity Eight that won silver at the NCAA’s this season. Like a lot of American collegiate crews, they are very international in flavour, with three Americans, two Italians and one each from New Zealand, The Netherlands and Great Britain in their line-up. They also have a significant amount of international racing experience among their crew; Aisha Rocek raced for Italy at the Tokyo Olympics finishing 12th in the W2-. Her compatriot, Carmela Pappalardo has been a member of the senior Italian team since 2016 and was in the W8 that finished sixth at the 2021 European Championships. McKenna Bryant and Teal Cohen were members of the US BW8 U23 gold medal winning crew last year and Holly Dunford won gold for GB in the U23 4- in 2021. Isabel van Opzeeland is another 2021 U23 medallist winning a silver behind the US in the BW8, (she’s the one change from the UW varsity crew, having moved up from the 2V). Holly Drapp also raced at the U23 World Championships for the US, finishing fifth in the BW4+ and the final member of the crew is Kiwi Ella Cossill. She was named to the New Zealand U23 team for 2021 but didn’t get to compete due to COVID restrictions. Washington won this event back in 2000, and whilst they might not have the speed to beat the national team boats, they will be looking to give them as big a scare as possible and may even fancy their chances against the Chinese.
Leander Club are the current holders of this event. Their crew for this year is made up of seasoned internationals, and whilst they won’t quite have the speed of the senior international crews they will, like Washington, be wanting to give their competition as hard a time as possible. The crew includes Chloe Brew who rowed in the GB W8 in Tokyo along with Sam Courty who represented GB at the World Championships in 2019 finishing tenth in the W2- and Alice Davies, who made her senior international debut at the Sabaudia World Cup in 2021. Sophia Heath and Issy Powell have raced for GB at the U23 World Championships and Juliette Perry and Issy Hawes have raced the European U23’s. The final member of the crew is Annie Campbell-Order – she won her first GB vest earlier this season racing at the Windermere Cup in Washington (where they beat Washington). The club are coming off the back of a very successful Henley Women’s Regatta where members of this crew won both the Championship W4- and Championship W2-.
Leander are also racing as part of a composite with The Tideway Scullers School. This is a boat made up mostly of British athletes studying in the US with Katy Kalap, Cordi Mahoney and Zoe Scheske from Princeton, Carla Russell from Michigan, Mryan Greene from Oregon and Olivia Ceasar from UCLA.
Thames Rowing Club and the University of California, Berkeley are another interesting combination of athletes who are, or have, studied at US universities along with a smattering of London based international oarswomen. Fernanda Cellabos Lara is a Mexican who studied at the University of Texas, Nicola Lawless, from St Pauls Girls School, rowed in the University of Virginia varsity crew that finished 12th at the NCAA’s. Sophie Faliero has just completed her junior year at the University of California, Berkeley. Sarah Tisdall is another US-educated athlete having rowed for Harvard. The stern pair of the crew are both senior internationals. At seven in the crew is Claire Feerick, who rowed for Ireland at the second World Cup last year finishing fifth in the W2-. Stroking the boat is Charlotte Wesselman from Germany – she raced in the Eight at the final World Cup of 2019.
The final crew in the event are the Tideway Scullers School & universities of Western Australia Boat Clubs. This boat has Tokyo Olympian Harriet Taylor at two along with former Australian lightweight international Thea Adamson at seven and U23 medallist Liliane Lindsay from the USA at stroke.
Predictions: This is going to be a great battle between the British, American and Australian crews. Home support may be a real help for GB and I can envisage the final being GB v either Australia or the US (depending on the draw). My money is on Australia just edging it, but it should be a cracking event.
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