We have reached the summit. As a rowing community, there are few weeks in the calendar that we collectively look forward to more than Henley Royal Regatta. The unique match-racing style format, the frivolity and festival unfolding on the banks alongside a pomp and circumstance that transports the punter back through the pages of time itself. All of this is secondary though to the curvature of competition that angles upwards as the week unfolds. From heats on the Tuesday to finals on the Sunday, all roads lead to the red box. JRN will be with you every step of the way to provide the most comprehensive coverage of the Regatta available anywhere in the world – and we start with our exclusive set of event previews. Roll on the racing.
Total Entries: 6
One of the most interesting, and unexpected, selection battles that have been going on this season is that for the German quad. The nominal Olympic boat for Germany were beaten this season by what is essentially a development boat and it is this boat that arrives in Henley to race. It’s that line up that races in Henley as Ruder-Klub Normannia Braunschweig e.V. and Sportclub Magdeburg e.V. Abteilung. The crew consists of Paul Berghoff, Alex Finger, Felix Heinrich and Paul Krueger. Finger and Heinrich are reigning U23 world champions in the BM4X whilst Kreuger placed fourth in the BM2X. Berghoff was fifth in the BM1X last year. This crew raced at the Poznan World Rowing Cup, where they picked up an excellent bronze medal (with their ‘senior’ crew back in fifth).
Another crew headed to Paris is Estonia (Sõudekeskus Kalev and Pärnu Sõudeklubi, Estonia). They have some of the most experienced athletes in world rowing, with Allar Raja and Tonu Endrekson in the two and three seats. Both men have over 20 years’ experience on the senior international circuit and the 43-year-old Endrekson qualified for his sixth Olympic Games when the crew finished second at the FOQR. They are joined by Mikhail Kushteyn and Johann Poolak. This line-up made the A-Final at both the European and world championships in 2022, but slipped back to eighth, and out of the Olympic qualifying places, at the 2023 world championships. This season, as well as racing at the FOQR, they made the A-Final of the European championships. Endrekson was in the last Estonian crew to win at Henley, back in 2008. Should the Estonians take the title, he might set the record as the longest gap between wins!
One crew that just missed out on Paris qualification are the USA (Penn Athletic Club Rowing Association and California Rowing Club, U.S.A.) They missed out to the Estonians at the FOQR by just 13/100th of a second. The crew is unchanged from the line-up that finished ninth at the 2023 world championships and will feature Kevin Cardno, Liam Galloway, William Legenzowski and Dominique Williams. Both Galloway and Legenzowski are former U23 world championship medalists. This is a development boat for the USA with their eyes squarely set on their home Olympics in 2028.
The Netherlands is racing as Hollandia Roeiclub and they have a crew of very talented development athletes; Jorn Salverda, Stijn Wieling, Michiel Mantel and Wibout Rustenburg. They won the B-Final at the European championships earlier this season and raced again at the Poznan World Rowing Cup, where they finished in fourth, just behind the Germans. At the Holland Beker, they were, perhaps surprisingly, beaten into second place by a crew from SkØll (who are racing at Henley Royal Regatta in the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup).
Spain are another nation that missed out on the Paris Olympics after their fourth place in the repechage at the FOQR saw them eliminated from the competition. In Henley they race as Team España, Spain. The crew is Antonio Diaz Ramos, Jordi Jofre I Senciales, Gonzalo Garcia Ferraro and Manel Balastegui. Ramos was U23 BLM2X silver medallist last season and Balastegui is another former lightweight, eighth in the LM1X at last year’s world championships. Ferraro was Spain’s representative in the M1X last season and placed 21st at the world championships. Senciales raced the single the year before with a similar result.
The home nations hopes are pinned on the Leander Club quartet of Liam Smit, Rory Harris, Stephen Hughes and Tobias Schroder. Smit raced for Canada at the 2023 world championships, finishing 17th in the quad. He raced for South Africa as a junior and U23 before moving to Canada and now is based in the UK. Rory Harris won this event with Leander Club in 2021 and also won the Prince of Wales in 2022 and 2023 (one of the few athletes to win the open event before the intermediate one). He made his senior international debut in 2021, winning a bronze medal at the final World Rowing Cup. He also competed at the final World Rowing Cup this season, where he and Tobias Schroder placed eighth in the double. Schroder is a former Oxford Blue and U23 gold medalist. He raced at the final World Rowing Cup’s of both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, placing 33rd in the single in 2023 and, as mentioned above, eighth in the double this season. Hughes won the Fawley for Leander Club back in 2019 and made his international debut in 2023, finishing fourth in the BM4X at the U23 world championships. As part of the GB “Project LA” squad he made his senior debut at the final World Cup of the season placing an excellent fourth in the M2x (partnered by Cedol Dafydd).
Prediction
I would love to see the Estonians win but the young Germans may give them a run for their money. I’m going for experience over youth – Estonia to take it.
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