Reviews:
St Edward’s School v Newport Aquatic Center, USA
Launching off the start, it was St Edward’s (Teddies) who rocketed into the lead, claiming their three quarter length lead over Newport Aquatic. They held this distance and maintained the lead but seemingly were struggling in their attempt to pull away, Newport Aquatic were clinging onto the stern of their Empacher with all hopes of remaining in the race. With a surprise surge at Remenham, Teddies were overcome and the Americans walked right past them looking almost effortless as they moved. It was a canvas by the Milepost but the Californians did not stop there, they glided to claim each seat of the teddies crew and started to walk away with the win, practically unchallenged by the worn out St Edward’s crew. In what looked like an easy race for Teddies, Newport Aquatic showed their prowess to walk away with the win by half a length.
Headington School v St. Catherine’s School, Australia
Now, what a race this was. It was the dominating crew from yesterday, St Catherine’s, who had the cleaner start and started to pull away off the Island but the cleaner Headington crew held them at just a canvas. Headington have recently perfected the art of walking through crews ahead of them, demonstrated at Henley Women’s Regatta the other week, and started to show their real pace picking up the seconds they lost off the start. The crews drew level at the Half Mile marker but St Catherine’s foiled Headington’s plans of walking away with it by matching their pace, stroke for stroke, really causing Headington to work for the win. With St Catherine’s being the Australian national champions and Headington being ranked second in the UK (but beating the national champions at HWR) these crews are obviously well matched. However, an obstacle both crews faced was steering warnings. Both crews were warned for steering going past the enclosures to keep apart which St Catherine’s obviously responded too and Headington drifted slightly back to their station, visibly responding less than the Australians. This caused the St Catherine’s crew to drop back as the rudder put the brakes on ultimately handing Headington the win but not before a well fought battle.
Previews:
Newport Aquatic Centre USA v Headington School
After two dramatic races today that followed very similar templates, we are in for a real banger of a semi-final tomorrow. If any British crew are going to win this event, Henley Women’s proved it will be Headington and facing off this impressive American crew will test their real race pace going into the finals on Sunday. However, St Edward’s are England’s number three, just behind Headington, which will fill Newport with hope going into this race that they can beat top British crews and therefore can overthrow this Headington crew. However, I can’t bet against a home hero. Headington will take this, maybe just on the line, but they have the better stamina and the better knowledge of this course needed to take that final spot on Sunday.
RowAmerica rye v Newport Aquatic Centre USA
In an all American semi-final, the national champions and the second place finishers go head to head down the iconic Henley course to really prove who is the top American crew. The champions RowAmerica Rye had a hard race today against the British National Champions potentially tiring them out for their event tomorrow as Newport Aquatic had an easier run, they were pushed by Shiplake and did race hard but their lead was much more convincing than RowAmerica Rye’s was. RowAmerica Rye have had their race plan set for a few races of going hot off the start and basically holding on with not much left towards the line, hoping that they have worn their opposition out enough to run a clean sweep to the line. Newport Aquatic have raced this tactic before and looked to have a strong finish against Shiplake today and may use this intel to overturn the result of Youth Nationals down the course tomorrow. I would go with the National Champions but don’t count out the runners up just yet.
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