Henley residents and visitors checking the news headlines on Friday morning were greeted with wailing over how a torrential rainstorm could wipe out the socially and economically critical Wimbledon and Glastonbury scenes – while most British rowers, coaches, and officials just said “We’re British, we’re used to it” with a shrug. But even the British gave in to the teeming rain at around midday, just as the Purdue and Tyne crews pulled up to the starting line, and a group of parents and rowing journalists prepared to slide into the following launch to watch the race. One of the eights out in the warmup area was kvetching over their four-seat, whose false eyelashes had drooped down her face like a small slug (I kid you not).
Thus the call went out: “Racing is suspended! Racing is suspended!” But apparently the crews didn’t hear the wailing, and pulled into the blocks. The officials at the line looked at each other, saw that every single person at the line was ready to run the race, from the athletes and officials right to the now supremely soggy parents, and said “Race 10 is ready, go ahead and run it.”
Over the next three to five minutes, the lot of us got a right proper drenching, but by 500 meters to go, the umbrellas had been put away, rain hoods pulled off, and you could almost see the sun over Henley proper, 1000 meters away. If you have to see it to believe it, compare this photo to this photo in today’s galleries, the photos were taken less than five minutes apart. The consensus was that the crews in the race did not even know about the suspended suspension, and the Purdue crew looked anything but distracted, pulling out to open water by the end of Temple Island and never looking back or really shutting down. So it went all day long, with bouts of (admittedly lighter) rain followed by (well, almost) pleasant conditions, and heaps of racing. With HWR on four minute centers over the 1500 meter course for the first two days, there is a whole lot of racing going on.
But not a lot of it was very exciting racing just yet – maybe a handful of crews reached the spectator area with overlap on the day. Which isn’t to say there wasn’t exciting happenstance, including a full clash right off the line between two eights, which results in the immediate disqualification of the Berkshire-lane crew that steered immediately across the river. The dramatic sequence was caught by the row2k camera, starting here in our galleries.
On Friday at least, the Henley Women’s Regatta has much more the feel of a standard English weekend regatta, according to some of the hardcore rowing folks in the region. The Barn Bar just above the boating area is a suitably rustic place to hang your raincoat to drip, with picnic tables and an open patio under a moss-covered roof – but it was a mellow scene, as many were saving their partying – and probably their livers – for the weekend, if not for two weekends hence.
Saturday’s racing starts at 8:15am, and runs until 5:47 pm, on four minute centers without a break all day. That’s 244 races – wow!
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|