Sometimes rowing is not just about the racing result.
When Andrea Proske crossed the line at Henley Royal Regatta on Friday, well behind British development athlete Lauren Henry, she was carrying much more than her personal pride. Which is why she found it so easy to accept defeat two weeks after becoming the best in the world. Sometimes other emotions matter more.
Here in Henley, Proske is staying with local US expat Anne Buckingham, a former Leander committee member and long-time rowing volunteer who returns to Boston to help out at the Head of the Charles each year. For many years Anne has found accommodation for rowers visiting Henley Women's Regatta and Henley Masters, and she also volunteered with London 2012 as an assistant to the British Paralympic rowers and other teams during the local Olympics.
Her husband Peter, who had been a devotee of Henley Royal Regatta, died in March 2020 just as the pandemic was taking hold and disrupting funerals and memorial services.
Tucked into Proske's boat was a small red bag carrying some of Peter's cremains, taking his memory up the course he so loved and will never see again.
After sliding over the finish line, Proske held the red bag aloft, briefly making the umpire think she was protesting, but in fact celebrating Peter's life and enthusiasms, for Anne. It's a reminder of what's really important.
The final North American crews went out of the draw on Saturday, Maggie Fellows losing to Briton Lauren Henry by a length and a half and Bermuda/American Dara Alizadeh beaten by Leander's Seb Devereux. Fellows was unable to stop Henry claiming an early small lead but fought determinedly to stop the British sculler moving away. It took a further push from Henry at the Fawley halfway point to ensure that overlap was broken, giving Fellows no option but to scull to the end behind her. Although on paper both are similar national-squad aspirants, Henry has been on an irresistible roll this week.
So has Devereux, who conquered the multiple-nationality sculler Alizadeh with an 'easily' (> 5 lengths) verdict in the Diamond Challenge Sculls. Alizadeh has been turning heads by wearing an eye-catching black-blazer with ice-cream pink shorts combination into the fabled Stewards' Enclosure where shorts are in fact banned.
However, 'national dress' is permitted and the unusual costume is the Bermudan opening ceremony outfit for the Tokyo 2020 Games, where Alizadeh carried the flag for his country, walking into the Olympic stadium with Cambridge University coach Rob Baker, who was accompanying him to Japan. Alizadeh has been rowing with his Bermudan sculls at Henley, after finishing 18th at the Sea Forest Waterway.
The latest drama to involve Oxford Brookes University at the regatta was the wholesale penalisation of the entire club — including its Grand and Goblets crews who are both favourites to win — due to the Stewards detecting unsportsmanlike conduct.
Brookes had two crews in the new women's student eights event called the Island Challenge Cup, who had to race one another on Friday afternoon for a place in the final. The 'A' crew duly won, but after scrutinising the very useful video footage overnight, the HRR Committee of Management decided that the 'B' crew had not pushed them hard enough, and applied an Official Warning, meaning a false start to all Brookes crews. Since two false starts means you're out, and they can be given for arriving late at the stakeboats or breaking the circulation pattern, as well as jumping the start, this is a real risk for Brookes, who have athletes in seven of the 26 finals on Sunday.
The most telltale evidence is that between the Barrier and Fawley the 'B' crew's stroke rate dropped dramatically from the mid-30s expected of a racing eight, down to 28-30. The 'A' crew were thus able to lower their effort to a paddle, and save energy for the rest of the weekend. Whilst there is nothing wrong with a leading crew bringing its rate down, and this happens often, for the losing crew to do it without an excuse such as injury or broken equipment means they were not trying.
"It is the judgement of the Committee of Management that... ...Oxford Brookes University Boat Club's conduct of the race was unsporting", said an official statement released on Saturday morning. "The crews did not compete sufficiently for the outcome or verdict."
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