On day four of now six, the regatta does seem to stretch on a bit, but a look round the boat tents tells the story best: we are well on to the weekend, because the racks are emptying and events are getting down to Semi-Finals .
In fact, the way the timetable spreads the racing out over six days, a few events even raced semis today, with the Wyfold, Britainnia, and Prince Albert Fours all setting their finals a day early, in the after Tea session Friday.
At the same time, some of the more elite events with fewer entries were finally getting down to racing, but whether you had survived to a Friday race or were just starting, every crew today was just a win or two away from their prize, so wins were sweet and losses at this stage were tough to take.
Kara Kohler took one of the former in the Princess Royal W1x, comfortably, with her time in the single of the last quadrennial no doubt a help in the bouncier water today. In the same event, Tabea Schendekehl, the German sculler racing here along with her former college squad from Washington where she now coaches, got a tough opponent in GB Olympic lightweight Imogen Grant and went out.
Ben Davison of the US did not get past Australia's David Bartholot, either today--the two did not race each other in Poznan, with Bartholot on the other side of the draw where he missed the final where Davison earned bronze--but in this head-to-head match up, the Aussie was able to pull away.
One event just underway was the US-heavy Ladies Plate for the IRA Varsity crews. Yale's crew started those proceedings with a win: though not their complete V8 from the season, they eased away with aplomb, although they were sternly warned by Sir Matthew Pinsent who umpired the race after getting ahead of the Molesey & Mercantile crew and and taking the center of the course. Cal's run was less eventful over the Thames & Army Rowing Clubs to advance to their semi.
Who Moved On By Tea Time (US crews):
Kara Kohler (Princess Royal W1x); Cal, Yale (Ladies Plate M8+); Brown and Yale (Island W8+); Washington (Temple M8+); Cambridge BC & Craftsbury GRP (Princess Grace W4x); Liu & Heese-US LM2x (Double Sculls); Sechser & Fellows Stonor W2x); Ahyi & Van Westreenen of Cal, row over (Hambleden W2-)
Who Went Out By Tea Time (US crews)
Ben Davison (Diamonds M1x); Tabea Schendekehl (Princess Royal W1x); Wilson HS (PE JM8+); Dolphin Club (Fawley JM4x); Baher & Mead (Stonor W2x); Edmunds & King-Smith of Yale and Mirfin & Frampton of UW (Hambleden W2-)
Drama Comes in Pairs
One event that drew attention today was the Women's Pairs event, the Hambleden Challenge. First came the news that the Olympic Champs from New Zealand had withdrawn--giving the Cal pair who earned the right to meet them an unexpected, and no doubt welcome, row-over to advance to Saturday.
Next came some serious flirting with the booms by the "AUSA" combo of USA's Megan Musnicki and Australia's Jess Morrison. The two Olympians were well in front of the pair from Yale when they swerved into contact with the boom, but they quickly restarted and were never really in danger of losing the early lead they had built coming away from the Island.
Afterward, Musnicki admitted both the steering and the conditions were challenging, but mostly she had relished the chance to be out racing again:
"God, it was so much fun to race again. Obviously it's fun to win, but it's also fun to race! I was quite nervous leading up to it at the beginning because I haven't raced a pair internationally since maybe World Cup 2019-it's been quite some time. So I had I had some nerves, but then it was interesting: when I got up there, I was just kind of like: this is what I love to do. Yeah, I love to do this. And so win or lose, I love to line up."
The Yale Pair they defeated--Lucy Edmunds and Katie King-Smith--raced the Olympians in what was their final race as Yale athletes after coming up together in the GB Junior National Team System, and then choosing Yale together.
King-Smith, a winning here a year ago in the Leander Wargrave eight, said afterwards:
"It was great to race again, in such an intimate setting. It's my last race for Yale, and I've had a long career racing with Lucy, and this was was one hell of a race to finish on."
Emotions were high for the pair, but Musnicki, walking by, was quick to tell them to be proud of themselves and how they raced.
Eights Advancing
In addition to the morning's Ladies' Plate results, the Washington Men moved on in the Temple Cup:
"I think we we obviously had a good solid start," said Head Coach Mike Callahan, "and then we were able to get into a base that we really thought was solid up into the Fawley. Laga really pushed really hard in the middle and I think we responded enough. You know, it's a game of trying to advance the next day, so you want to be careful with your energy. On the other hand, they made a good race of it, too, so: a little bit of offense, then some defense, then back on the offense throughout that race."
"That's a little bit of going through the progression of Henley here. We have a race against Durham tomorrow, which we saw had a good crew also. It's the proverbial one race of the time, but it's also managing a long week. Now that they've gone to six days, you can feel the length of the week, I mean, yesterday, I couldn't believe was Thursday night."
"This is a development crew for us, so trying to get the guys to learn how to manage emotions the right way to be ready to race, mentally, and then come down and relax enough to be mentally ready to go the next day. That's going to be really key throughout the longest week of Henley ever, and especially in an event like this where you race potentially five times. We got ourselves into the fourth race, which we're really proud of and the guys have done really well."
The stroke of Callahan's Temple Eight did not even make the team's IRA squad, but he and the crew are working well here, and Callahan hope that this all leads his squad into next year and the work ahead.
In the Island Cup for Women, Brown took another step today, as did Yale who took on Washington's 2V and saw them off with a patient and mature race.
Brown Assistant Coach Tessa Gobbo is leading the Brown crews this week and it is her first trip here, even in all her years as an athlete with Brown and the US National Team.
In advancing here--and winning Women's Henley two weeks ago--Brown has been racing with their hall mark toughness and grit:
"That comes from them," said Gobbo. "They just work hard. They like it. They know that reputation and they pick Brown because of that reputation. They are just good people, so I hope that they get as much good racing in as they can."
"They're just having a fun time racing, doing the best they can and seeing really great competition from around the world. They're excited to race another day."
Going Out, Also Part of Henley
Not every crew gets to race another day, of course, not even if they have laid their best on the line.
For Wilson coach Joe McMullin, seeing his crew lose to King's College made for a tougher day than Tuesday and Wednesday's wins, but making it to Friday and the quarterfinals was a big achievement for his crew:
"I thought the way the season played out throughout the whole year, we had a crew that that could compete and the reach goal was Friday, in my mind. Beating two crews and making it to the quarterfinals is just incredible. And, you know, here we are, and yeah, we were knocked out, but we have an amazing story and we're really proud of the kids."
Wilson five seat, Milo Epstein, called racing at Henley on Wilson's first trip ever, life changing.
"Just the chance to be here is truly incredible. All the hard work we've put in, it's just it's so amazing that it finally paid off and we've gotten to come to one of the most prestigious regattas in the world. Not only not only just to race here, but to make it to the quarterfinals, which I think is a huge achievement for us."
"For a lot of us, we understood that any race here, each race that we get to, could very well be our last. We went in with the mentality of, okay, well, we have seniors in the boat, this is their last race of the season, let's go out and make it a good one and whatever happens, happens. Personally, I feel like I gave it my all and I think I want my boat mates to know that I pulled for them."
Meeting the crew in the boat tents, Henley Steward and Wilson alum Aquil Abdullah was emotional, seeing how far the program he started had come this year, even in defeat.
The quad from Oakland California, Dolphin Club, went out in a tougher way: trailing but still in contact with a strong "B" Crew from Windsor Boys' School, a shoe failed in the boat and the resulting crab spun the oarlock around and took the crew out of the race. To that point, the Dolphin boys had pushed Windsor, a premier quad program, pretty hard and, though the crews largely just paddled out the second half of the race, the Windsor Boys stopped right at the line to wait for Dolphin in a sign of respect for their efforts and the bad luck.
Christoph Karleskind, the bow man, talked about the race after the crew derigged the broken boat:
"I felt pretty confident going into the race. I knew our capabilities, and even though like we were down about half a length at the start, I knew that, on this race course, there's always like a big advantage to the outside lane. So we tried capitalizing on that mid race, but things just happened and it wasn't meant to be."
Head Coach James Kwan took the long view of what the group accomplished this year despite the setbacks they had dealt with even before today's mishap:
"The kids have worked really hard this year. I think they've been through more adversity than any other group I know of. About a month out from regionals, their whole season got taken away from them. Almost all the coaches were fired, the board kind of retaliated and kicked off a lot of kids who pushed back, and it's been a lot of work to get to where we are here. They've been really impressive and it's been a privilege coaching them and seeing that kind of come together: a real push this last month to get a lot faster and kind of pick up where we left off back in March. So while equipment failure is something out of their control, I'm really proud of kind of how they did."
Henley came to a close for the Canadian college crews from UBC as well today: Craig Pond's Women took out a determined Princeton crew but then met up with the strong Yale boat, while Mike Pearce's Men made it all the way here to Friday in the Temple, going out to the Dutch from Triton.
"It was a tough fight," said UBC Head Coach Pearce. "Triton was a very clean, efficient rowing crew. We thought we were very comparable with them based on what we saw earlier in the regatta, but it was very challenging conditions. That really made a difference in being able to maintain that efficiency in those gusts."
Two of the UBC men, Julien Black and Joel Cullen, head to Lucerne next, where they will race as a U23 pair with the Canadian team at World Cup 3.
From Blazers to Boat Names
Taking a Break from our Blazer Watch, here was the best boat name we saw today:
Fans of 'The Muppets' should get this one.
Notes From the Course
Another Re-Row Worth Waiting For: hard as it was to top yesterday's crash-turn-and-burn rerow that ended the day, we got another rescheduled heater today between Leander Club and the Australian National Team Four in the Town. After paddling the course to get back and fix some broken equipment, the actual match just before lunch was bowball-to-bowball at the end, with Leander just nudging ahead in the same final strokes were Australia hit the booms. What a way to end the morning session.
By Any Other Name: an error on the results page Friday was a double insult to the University of London crew that went out today. Not only did they lose to Oxford Brookes in Race #11, but they were initially listed as a crew from America. Fixed now, of course, but still a rare misstep for the regatta machinery here.
Rare Early Trip to the Boat Yard: it was jarring to see an Oxford Brookes crew headed to he boatyard already on a Friday. Granted it was their "B" eight in the Temple, who lost to Durham, but it sometimes feels like all of their crews will make the finals, given the depth of the program and their recent successes.
One-on-One: it was remarked in the Enclosures that two-boat racing does give the losing crew a chance to feel the satisfaction of having done their best on a given day. While a bobble or bad start can mean the difference of a few places in a larger 6 boat race, the agony of "what could have been" that comes with that does not exist in a race with two boats. The winner wins, and the second place crew can still feel that they gave their best on the day.
The HRR Report: You can read about more racing highlights, to include ones after the Tea Interval, in Friday's Summaries.
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