Tailwind to spice things up? Check, and we got a fast Thursday to take things up a notch here at Henley.
Who Moved On
Among US crews, the following won their races on Thursday:
You can watch race by race replays here on Youtube, and read the Regatta's notes on the Thursday races here.
On the Friday
Today, to be frank, is a day to settle in and watch some of the Youtube replays, for sure. Just take a look at the first six, US interest heavy races:
All of those came up the course super early back in the States, though maybe some folks caught UW live at 1:05am in Seattle. There are plenty of US races today, but any semblance of maybe scheduling US races for peak viewership on either coast is out the window.
Here's the best of the rest that will happen in daylight back home--ie after the Lunch Interval here--catch them on the livestream, or, of course, via replay:
9:00 am EDT - Harvard vs Oxford Brookes in Visitors (M4-)
9:10am EDT - Texas vs Hollandia Roeiclub (Open W8)
9:15am EDT - Shiplake vs Marin RA (Junior M8+)
9:45am EDT - L. Smit (CAN) vs O. Zeidler in Diamonds (M1x)
10:35am EDT - Harvard vs Oxford Brookes A in Temple (College M8+)
10:50am EDT - S.M. Luwis (USA) vs C.O. Porter (USA) in Princess Royal (W1x)
11:15am EDT - Washington vs Cornell in Temple (College M8+)
2:00pm EDT - Syracuse vs Nereus (NED) in Temple (College M8+)
2:05pm EDT - Cambridge vs Princeton in Visitors (M4-)
And these two, from the morning today, are well worth the replay, we promise:
Prince Phillip - Winter Park Crew vs Melbourne Girls Grammar Sch (AUS)
Prince Phillip - Deerfield Academy vs St. Catherine's Sch (AUS)
Race of the Day - Thursday
A real tussle on the Thames ???????
- Henley Royal Regatta (@HenleyRegatta) June 29, 2023
Marie Zeidler and Georgie Robinson Ranger light up the riverbank with some impressive rowing ?? #HRR23 pic.twitter.com/tNzFPF9yiF
This one wins by consensus: as the Rowing Voice notes here, it had the Press Box on their feet in admiration, and suspense:
By far the best race today, got us all on our feet and it was the first time we've heard the commentators downstairs, which attests to how excited they were to see such a great race. Wonderfully done, both.
- The Rowing Voice (@RowingVoice) June 29, 2023
Ziedler, who was in the German quad at Europeans last year, is indeed the younger sister of Ollie Ziedler: the 2022 world champion and winner in the single here at Henley last year, was watching the race ahead of getting started in the Diamonds today, and greeted her on the dock afterwards.
Waiting a Full Year, Plus
For both Winter Park and Los Gatos, who each started racing on Thursday, the crews had waited not just for the first two days of the Regatta to get going, but for a whole year: 5 of the 8 Winter Park women who made the final last year returned this year, as did the entire Los Gatos Quad, which lost in the first round last year.
What was it like to finally get to row in the regatta you've been waiting for all year?
"I was ready for it. I was really excited, actually," said stroke seat Zoe DeFeo. "We've been waiting all year to come and do this and to finally get out there was amazing. Just to get all the nerves out, and now we've got one under our belt and we are just going to keep going."
Defeo sat bow in the crew that made the run into the final last year, and added, "I think we do our best when we focus in on ourselves, and that was the main focus today. We did a good job executing that. We just stick to ourselves and do what we can and be ourselves every time to go faster."
For Los Gatos, who lost an opening round race last year which they had led past Fawley, the fact that had all been junior year rowers with another year of eligibility was luck, according to coach Channing Walker.
We asked two seat Alberto Lasso how the crew and their coach leveraged the experience they gained here last year.
"Last year, we were prepared, but we didn't know how prepared we needed to be," Lasso said. "It was completely new for us."
"This year, we knew what the expectations were. We've been training the entire season with Nationals in mind, that was the main goal, but in the back of our head, we had Henley. We were thinking about that month between nationals and Henley, and what that training plan was going to look like."
When row2k asked if there was one key thing to how they approached the year, three-seat Ian Moss said this:
"The biggest part was personal health. Last year, we were all kind of sick and we weren't taking care of ourselves very well. taking time off when we needed to instead of overworking ourselves."
Dueling Records
A Henley tailwind and a new event makes a perfect recipe for lots of records, and first Winter Park and then St. Catherine's School (AUS) set new records in the Prince Phillip racing coming up the course.
Winter Park set new marks at the Barrier and Fawley, only to later see St. Catherine's beat the first by two seconds and equal the second--but the Park's course record still stood at the end, a full eight seconds faster than the one set by the crew they lost to in the final last year.
It will likely take another tailwind--which is not currently in the forecast--or an epic dual to challenge that record again this year .
"The situation is unchanged"
That gets our vote for best polite British euphemism of the day, and was how the Enclosure announcer politely indicated that Diana Dymchenko, the Azerbaijiani national team sculler was continuing to win "easily" over Nottingham's Jen Titterington as the race came up the course to the finish.
Fish on Bikes
The Adams House four is a quintet of Harvard athletes who all live in, you guessed it, Adams House. Since the guys paid for the trip themselves, they cannot wear their Harvard kit...and they didn't want to buy too much new gear in case they did not qualify.
Thus, these "Fish on Bikes" shirts, with a logo that just happens to match the colors of Adams House, that--after some quick alterations, like ripping the sleeves off--gave the crew their racing gear and a ready made nickname.
They saw off the Brown four on Thursday and get Oxford Brookes today.
And while the Harvard guys are dressed down, a bit, the Penn women did their last practice row before winning over Nottingham University in polo shirts. Classy Quakers, indeed.
Rare Air
A quick "Behind the Photo of the Day" story:
The two coaches who made it to the top of the iconic Henley church tower in yesterday's Photo of the Day--Yale's Jamie Snider and Princeton's Dave Burke--confessed that the visit took some doing.
Turns out that the tower is never open to visitors anymore, but Snider happens to be staying with a loyal parish member who introduced him to the vicar. Thus, the tower visit was a years-in-the-making opportunity that came about through knowing the host family--in other words a particularly fortuitous ending to another typical Henley home-stay story, and a tribute to the types of ties folks develop with their hosts.
Given all that, they made sure some one could record the event for them, and arranged for Katie Lane to spot them waving and shoot the photo.
"Back Tomorrow"
Best thing to be able to say on your way out of the boat tent when you're racing at Henley?
"We'll be back tomorrow!" of course--though we did meet one guy who found a silver lining of a narrow loss in the fact that he could finally have a proper dinner, instead of more training table risotto.
Gonna Need a Bigger Arrow
A rented boat cruised right past the "go this way" arrow at the finish yesterday, just as a heat of the Jubilee was coming into the Enclosures:
DRAMA at the finish, as a passenger boat ploughs it down the middle of the course despite shouted warnings, with the race less than 200 metres away. They made it just past the finish before realising they were being addressed, and turning around and off the course pic.twitter.com/Ev1xkQlHm0
- The Rowing Voice (@RowingVoice) June 29, 2023
Could've Used Them in Camden
Maybe the NCAA can hire these folks:
A uniquely ???? problem
- Henley Royal Regatta (@HenleyRegatta) June 29, 2023
???? #HRR23 pic.twitter.com/lFfXmvHuTq
Might have helped avoid the controversial goose strike suffered by the Texas 2V.
Swans are, of course, serious business here, and not just in the interest of protecting them as wildlife. By tradition, all swans belong to the monarch--now King Charles III, of course--and there is a dedicated Swan Support staff busy all week long keeping the very territorial birds out of harms way along the Henley reach.
Before & After Bit
Clever bit of social media-ing here by the Regatta:
How things can change ??
- Henley Royal Regatta (@HenleyRegatta) June 29, 2023
We asked University of Pennsylvania's Christina the same questions. Just with an Island Challenge Cup race in between... ?? #HRR23 pic.twitter.com/iQOBh0pFFu
Marin's Henley History
Turns out Marin has been here before:
"Design Your Own Uni' Advert?
Blazer of the Day
Dara Alizadeh, and the official blazer of the Bermuda National Rowing team.
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