In all on Friday, US crews did well in their fight to reach Saturday, which may well be the best day of racing if you ask any long-time Henley watchers: 11 made it through, a bit better than half of the crews that started with a shot on Friday.
Now it is semifinals time and so it really does all come down to this on Saturday: setting the 26 finals, for just 52 boats, down from the 732 original entries.
No wonder the Boat Tent, which losing crews need to vacate right after getting eliminated, is starting to feel empty, and exclusive, once again.
Who Moved On
Among US crews, the following won their races on Friday:
Who Went Out
Among US crews, the following lost their races on Friday:
Cornell M8, Harvard M8, Marin JM8, Northeastern W8, Oregon Rowing Unltd JW4x, Princeton (Remenham) W8, Princeton A M8, Syracuse M4-, Texas (Island) W8
You can watch race by race replays here on Youtube, and read the Regatta's notes on the Friday races here.
On the Saturday
Here's the best of the day's fixtures coming up during the day back in the States--catch them on the livestream or via replay:
9:20 am EDT - Washington vs Oxford Brookes A (College M8+)
10:10am EDT - Headington Sch vs Greenwich Crew (Junior W8+)
11:10am EDT - Deerfield Academy vs Winter Park (Junior W8+)
12:30pm EDT - Texas vs Leander A (Open W8)
12:40pm EDT - Stanford vs Pennsylvania A (College W8+)
1:20pm EDT - Hinksey Sculling Sch vs Los Gatos (Junior M4x)
2:40pm EDT - Leander vs Princeton in Visitors (M4-)
Race of the Day - Friday
The race between Deerfield and St Catherine's School (AUS) featured a patient, spot-you-a-length-then-draw-level effort midway through the course by the Deerfield girls to win.
You can watch the whole race here, which earned Deerfield a spot in a Saturday semi against Winter Park, but this tweet sums it up nicely as well:
When a picture says a thousand words ?? #ThisIsWhyWeRow #HRR23 @Deerfield pic.twitter.com/rC22CefjNZ
- Henley Royal Regatta (@HenleyRegatta) June 30, 2023
Is There Anything He Can't Do?
The Chairman of the Regatta really is Superman, it would seem: when one of the motor launches used to ferry Stewards and their guest conked out, Steve Redgrave appeared, jumped aboard, and took a quick peek in the engine compartment.
He had it running again in no time, prompting one launch driver to comment, "Is there anything he can't do."
To be fair, it is well within the description of really any regatta director at any size regatta to hop in and sort out any issue, but when a five-time Olympic Champion is the one doing the sorting, it makes for a great photo.
From Dinner Guests to Fixture Foes
The Princeton and Cambridge teams had a nice banquet, blazers and all, on Thursday night, but on Friday it was all business as the top boat from the Princeton squad here faced off against four Cambridge Blues in the Visitors.
Princeton prevailed, moving on to face Leander's GB four at the end of Saturday's program. The Tiger's win made it three US men's teams to watch on Saturday: both Washington and Syracuse won in the Temple eights to earn semi berths as well.
A Slight Change to the Programme
Folks on the banks and back home waiting for Race 31--the all US showdown in the Island between Penn A and Northeastern--might have been wondering why the race got moved from the morning slot to the afternoon, just before the Tea Interval.
Turns out it was not any sort of equipment problem, but an illness in the Northeastern camp meant an athlete from the eight had to double into the Town four, and the eight races was moved to create sufficient recovery time before the eights race.
For both American teams, the eight here was the priority boat, but for the Regatta, it seems that the Town Challenge--as an open or senior event--takes precedence over a Student event, so the Northeastern four raced as scheduled and it was the eights which got moved.
Penn took the delay in stride it would appear, winning the now-late afternoon fixture by two and a quarter lengths. They get Stanford in the semi-final today.
It appears that Harvard pulled off a pretty good prank on the commentary team by providing a backstory on their stroke man, Owen Marcovitz, that was not just incredible, but also incredibly familiar--and it made it on to the air.
During the race, Martin Cross added this bit of color, based on the notes each athlete provides to the broadcast team:
"At first he was an average street ballplayer from West Philly. After a street scuffle his mom said that's enough of street ball, you're off to go in Canada with his uncle, Phillippe, who introduced him to rowing and he's never looked back since."
Sounds an awful lot like...
We had to play it back a few times ourselves--well played, pranksters:
Henley Flyover
The low cloud cover and--who would've guessed it?--rain on Friday cancelled at least one planned flyover and made the second, by a vintage RAF Lancaster bomber, a smidge uncertain. So, when the plane roared over the trees it appeared as a bit of a surprise of the crews on the water, and to the Princeton coach Matt Smith who grabbed this video of it on their way down to watch the start of their four's race in the Visitors:
The bomber made three swooping passes, all while the pairs from Yale and Stanford were duking it out on the course--and you can see it make a few appearances in the broadcast during their race.
It was due to arrive a few minutes later, at 7:01, just as the 7 pm race between Syracuse and Nereus in the Temple would have been clearing the Island. When row2k asked the Syracuse coaches if they'd been warned that the crews might suddenly feel, well, under attack, they said no one had mentioned anything and mused, "Guess we better tell the guys."
The Winter Park Way
Winter Park had a full year of planning to return to Henley after their strong run into the finals last year, and came back with a few special touches to their gear and equipment.
As we noted yesterday, the 1962 on the back of their blades pays homage to the year the Winter Park Crew was founded to provide a crew team for the students at Winter Park High School.
The 'Sprinkles' stickers on their boat--there are four, in different shades, on each side--are thanks to the dad of 6-seat Ava Gormley, who works for Sprinkles, a company back home that makes, yep, sprinkles for topping ice cream and cupcakes.
Their hats feature the initials WGM, in honor of the recently deceased father of 2 seat Kate Miller, William Garrett (Bill) Miller.
All of these traditions mean a lot to coach Mike Vertullo, and the staff and parents who support the girls and raised the funds to send the team back to Henley.
Winter Park also has a team motto this year on the team t-shirts: LFG (and, yes, the kids know exactly what it means).
Rubbin' Is Racing
This right at the line kerfuffle definitely gets the nod for clash of the Regatta, not least of all because it happened in full view of the Press Box:
Day 4 Drama ????
- Henley Royal Regatta (@HenleyRegatta) June 30, 2023
K.A.R.Z.V. De Hoop and London Rowing Club clash oars with almost their last strokes. Following a review, London R.C. are through to the next round of the Wyfold ???????? #HRR23 pic.twitter.com/YpiT5rmrfv
Hey, I Know You
After the finish of the junior women's race between Tideway Scullers quad and the US Youth Nationals winners from Oregon Rowing Unlimited, the ORU bow turned to the British crew and yelled over:
"Hey is one of you (name)? You are going to (school)? I just committed there, too!"
It was a good race up the course by both crews, so the two future teammates will have something to bond over.
The Rest of the Shirt Story
We did some digging on the story behind the shirts featured on the cover of our Thursday report: turns out the shirts are another great Dutch boat club tradition.
Each athlete at this club--G.S.R. Aegir-- only gets one shirt, in his first year, and no one is allowed to wash them unless you win the Varsity race in the Netherlands--yep, the one where all your club mates swim out to greet the winners.
Once you've won three races, though, you do get to rip sleeves off, just as these guys have.
This crew just got back together this year after taking time off, so when they lost to Imperial in the Prince Albert on Thursday, they said they knew Imperial were the better crew but that they'll be back.
Time to Soak in the Scene
One benefit of racing in the more elite events with the smaller draw? Having time early in the week to have a day off to enjoy the Enclosure:
Tokyo Olympic champion coxswain Kristin Kit took the opportunity, along with her crewmates in the Canadian Women's Eight that is here to race for the Remenham Cup between World Cups 2 and 3--where they will not, of course, need to be nearly as fancy with their attire.
The Canada eight, racing as Maple Bay Rowing Club, will race the GB U23 boat on Saturday to set up what the Stewards hope to be a CAN vs GBR senior eight final on Sunday.
Black Flag
Molesey Boat Club has been going with the pirate theme this week, flying the skull and crossbones at their entrance to the boat tent.
No Phones in Stewards, eh?
One rule of the regatta seems to be getting bit lax:
Though, to be fair, when you run a regatta with massive video coverage--and invite a bunch of kids always glued to their phones--this might be a rule that probably does need a bit of leniency.
Blazer of the Day
Today's blazer belongs to Julia Groenveld, racing here in the Thames Cup with the Dutch club K.A.R.Z.V. de Hoop, and it is a 'hand down' from her student club in Amsterdam, A.A.S.R. Skoll. She gets to wear as the person on the Skoll club's committee in charge of coxswains.
Her blazer, in addition to being one passed down through the history of her club like many of the tattered and repaired Dutch blazers on show here, has a number of embellishments that drew our attention.
The bow ties actually signify the other clubs that she is racing with in the de Hoop crew here: the one on top is a deHoop tie. Julia also has a piece of a ribbon from a major race she won that she cut off to add to the blazer and there is even a bit of a tie from another club that she came across and kept a piece of to add to her blazer's story. She also point out the mermaid pin--given to her by a fellow coxswain--that is now a part of the jacket. She will pass it down, along with the blazer, to the next person and the pin will become an official badge of her office.
These hand down blazers have great stories and history: Julia's once belonged to Aranka Kops, the coxswain of the Dutch Men's national team eight from 2018-2020.
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