In the beginning, the Stewards created the fresh green lawns that we love to traverse through the Enclosures; they created the blue and white boat tents that come alive to the beat of Regatta fanfare; they created the booms that stand as the physical and spiritual guardians of an event storied in history; they created the 26 Trophies that were won and lost on a thrilling Finals Day. Then, they created the rain.
The rain. The never-ending deluge; the shower that became a storm that become a sea of mud and pooled water and soggy blazers and drenched launch occupants. The imagery was striking as competitors took to a river rising and surging under the unrelenting rainfall that will define this year’s Henley Royal Regatta as surely one of the wettest on record. Beyond Thursday – which stayed unblemished by the cruelest of weather Gods – every day saw at least one downpour that left the Stewards Enclosure resembling the Western Front by the Saturday lunchtime.
If the great theatre in the sky – thunderous and pregnant with the weight of a thousand storm clouds – was a metaphor for the racing unfolding below, then perhaps there was some insidious justice in the weather that turned the 2112m course into a greyscale arena of humanity. Across the 26 events, we witnessed a series of remarkable contests, featuring some of the sport’s finest athletes at a Regatta that trumps all in elegance, execution and excellence.
From my vantage point in the Press Box – alongside the rest of a JRN team who produced more content than ever before – I was a humbled witness to the crowning glory of so many collective seasons.
I do not take that seat for granted. JRN are lucky to be entrusted by the Regatta – and by our readers – to be purveyors of the sport and to immortalise the narrative that athletes produce via the power of our penmanship. We have a full run-down of every day’s events in all of the junior and student categories available in our briefing section, but here is my take on a wonderful and wet week of rowing.
Open Events
The boys in the booms. Washington came to Henley Royal Regatta with the IRA national championship title at their back but errant steering took away their chance to win the Grand Challenge Cup. Instead, it was Brookes – whose personal battle with Leander was settled in the most satisfying of ways on the Saturday – who secured the competition’s premier open event. Such is the magnitude of their achievements that wins in the Remenham and Stewards’ Challenge Cup felt almost expected and certainly did not immediately receive the plaudits they deserved. In particular, it is worth drawing attention to their women’s eight, who topped a quasi-American 2V in the final and rowed with impeccable maturity. Once again, this was a magnificent Regatta for a program who are simply the best pound-for-pound boat club on the planet.
Watching Leander Club take down the German development crew from Ruder-Klub Normannia Braunschweig e.V. and Sportclub Magdeburg e.V. Abteilung Rudern, Germany in the Queen Mother Challenge Cup was impressive, especially given both crews beat the American and Estonian quads the day before, the latter of whom will be present on the start-line in Paris. Jeannine Gmelin and co – racing under Lausanne-Sports Aviron, Switzerland and Shawnigan Lake School, Canada were unable to get the better of the Canadian national quad, which was a real shame for Jeannine whose return to Henley Royal Regatta will have been particularly poignant given the loss of her coach, Robin Dowell, in 2022.
Oliver Zeidler secured his fourth Diamond Challenge Sculls title with his third consecutive victory, whilst Ruiqi Liu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China won the Princess Royal Challenge Cup for China’s first-ever single scull victory at the Regatta. Leander Club’s Cedol Dafydd and Jamie Gare were convincing winners in the Double Sculls Challenge Cup whilst the other three small boat titles went overseas. Particularly gratifying was seeing Niki Van Sprang and Guillaume Krommenhoek win the Silver Goblets and Nickalls’ Challenge Cup and celebrate with some redemptive emotion over the line.
Intermediate Events
Despite the spirited way in which Cambridge University were first bumped up then reached the final of the Ladies Challenge Plate, they were unable to see off the Varsity eight from Princeton University, whose relentless rhythm through the mid-part of the race was something to be admired. Leander took both of the other Trophies in this category, sending out a sharp reminder that their developmental sculling program is something to be revered.
Club Events
A learning to JRN – never write off Thames pre-maturely. The Putney powerhouses came within a few strokes of winning a historic quadruple at Henley Royal Regatta and, like in 2023, it was only in the Wyfold Challenge Cup that they fell short. Marlow Rowing Club took that trophy in one of the races of the day, rowing Thames down in the Enclosures on the Berkshire bank before clashing in the dying moments.
For me, the race of the Regatta was the Thames Challenge Cup semi-final between the aforementioned and hot favourites from London Rowing Club. After putting eight seconds into Thames at Marlow Regatta just ten days prior, the blue and white of London arrived into Henley Royal Regatta in sharper form that we’ve seen in probably a decade. That Saturday showdown in pouring rain demonstrated how far Thames have come from the days in which the word ‘chokers’ was often thrown around. They were aggressive, stepping out early to control the narrative whilst absorbing everything London had to throw at them before stepping on the gas past the Enclosures. Such maturity cannot be taught – it has to be lived, and the collective mentality imbued to all who pass through the doors at Thames was on full display. London will come again, resurgent and refocused after a crushing experience.
Student Events
Brookes. Brookes. Brookes. Boom, boom boom. Ruthless at the very highest level of this sport, Brookes’ were peerless at yet another Henley Royal Regatta. Their victory in the Temple Challenge Cup was especially strong; they were faced with some incredibly fast overseas entrants, including Harvard‘s unbeaten lightweight eight, Princeton‘s 2V + 3V and a flotilla of Dutch boats including usual suspects from Nereus and Laga. The way in which Brookes found their mid-race gear and dismantled Princeton mid-way through the course is indicative of a program operating at the perfect crux point between chaos and control.
The question now posed to all of the remaining pack – whose illustrious docket includes Durham, UL, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Oxford and a whole host of international names – is how to beat this machine-like monstrosity of rhythm and aggressivity. The fact they had their ‘A’ and ‘B’ crews in the final of the Prince Albert Challenge Cup is just, well, unbelievable.
Junior Events
With three of these events perhaps a little easier to predict, I’ll focus first on the Prince Philip Challenge Trophy. Headington School arrived into Henley Royal Regatta with a burst of COVID-19 but also with the belief instilled from a strong victory at the Henley Women’s Regatta. To have gone on and beaten a roster of boats including the US national champions from RowAmerica Rye shows that this is a program that is developing fast. It has often been said that women’s eights is the only area on the junior circuit that the UK is behind the Americans but that narrative will be questioned – strongly – after Headington took on not only Rye but also the silver medalists from the USRowing Youth National Championships in Newport Aquatic and the Australian national champions from St Catherine’s School. In a year when we were also blessed with a National Schools’ Regatta-winning outfit from Hinksey Sculling School and the SRAA title holders from Winter Park, the scale of this win from Headington cannot be overstated.
St Paul’s School won their second triple crown in schoolboy rowing, making good on the obvious potential of this crew to win the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in some style. A lot has been made – by me, not least – about the talent available to Bobby Thatcher this season but, once again, he’s blended the raw elements together to form a crew that dominated all who they faced throughout the week. Kudos also to Shiplake College, who were the only club to boat a crew in every single junior event. They also won a round in every Trophy, which deserves significant plaudits to the maestros at that program (Dave Currie, Hugh Mackworth-Praed, Dan Safdari).
This was another vintage performance from the Windsor Boys School in the Fawley Challenge Cup, who saw off fierce rivals Marlow Rowing Club in the final. After two slightly disappointing Henley Royal Regatta campaigns for Pete Chambers’ charges, a final appearance is a significant marker in the sand. Meanwhile, it was a breathtaking Sunday for the Chute family, as younger brother Atticus stroked the Fawley quad to victory before Marcus drove his Princeton crew home to a win in the Ladies Challenge Plate.
Wycliffe finally reached the promised land in the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup, firmly cementing this crop of young women as the finest schoolgirl quad in recent memory. They have won every race in 2024 by open water, trailing back to the March head races when they were slicing their opposition apart by 30 to 40-second margins. Again, Marlow Rowing Club tracked them well but just could not find the speed to match this superb Wycliffe outfit.
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