Twenty U.S. crews, including five USRowing Training Center boats, will be contesting titles at the 171st Henley Royal Regatta. In most of the events, crews faced qualifying preliminary races last Friday; the Racing Committee posted the official draw this past weekend. Racing will begin on Thursday, July 1 for the nineteen title cups contested annually at the regatta. Racing for the Stewards' Challenge Cup (the men's four event) is the USRowing Training Center crew of Josh Inman (Hillsboro, Ore.), Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.), Brett Newlin (Riverton, Wyo.) and Giuseppe Lanzone (Annandale, Va.). The lineup took the silver medal at the Munich World Cup last weekend. Ten crews are entered in the event including the 2009 World Champion Great Britain four, the defending champions of the event. The USRowing TC crew has drawn the Dutch National team, racing as Hollandia Roeiclub, for the first round. In the U.S. crew, Rummel competed at Henley in previous years for Harvard University, including winning the Ladies' Challenge Plate in 2007. The Stewards' Challenge Cup has been contested every year since 1841. USRowing TC's Warren Anderson (Paso Robles, Calif.) and Glenn Ochal (Philadelphia, Pa.) will compete in the Double Sculls Challenge Cup after racing to a fourth-place finish in the event at the Munich World Cup stop. Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Thomas Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio), who represented the U.S. at the 2009 World Rowing Championships in the event, are also entered. With 13 entries, competition includes the Great Britain and France double sculls crews that took first and second in Munich, as well as the New Zealand lightweight men's double that won silver in Munich. The Double Sculls Challenge Cup was first raced in 1939, at the centenary celebration of the Royal Henley Regatta.
The championship men's quadruple sculls event, the Queen Mother Challenge Cup, will be contested by the U.S. crew of Scott Gault (Piedmont, Calif.), Will Miller (Duxbury, Mass.), Wes Piermarini (West Brookfield, Mass.) and Elliot Hovey (Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.) that placed seventh overall the event at the Munich World Cup. Piermarini and Hovey previously reached the final of the Queen Mother Challenge Cup in 2008, the year they also won the Double Sculls Challenge Cup. Miller won Henley's intermediate quadruple sculls event, the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, in 2008. There are a total of five entries in the event this year, including the Great Britain crew that took third in the event in Munich. The Queen Mother Challenge Cup was first contested in 1981.
Several USRowing TC crews will be doubling up into an eight that will contest the Grand Challenge Cup, the premiere men's eight event at Henley. The eight will consist of coxswain Ned DelGuercio (Media, Pa.), Inman, Rummel, Newlin, Lanzone, Ochal, Anderson, Gault and Hovey. The crew's competition includes the defending-champion Great Britain eight that won the event at the Rowing World Cup in Slovenia. Also entered are last year's world-champion German eight, the Canadian national team eight - which the U.S. has drawn in the first round, an eight comprised of New Zealand's under 23 and senior world championships fours and a Cambridge University and London Rowing Club crew with all but one of the rowers from the eight that won the 2010 Boat Race. The Grand Challenge Cup is the original Henley event and was first contested in 1839.
The lone women's entry for the U.S. is Genevra Stone, competing for Cambridge Boat Club before she races for the U.S. at the Lucerne World Cup stop. Stone will be racing for the Princess Royal Challenge Cup, the top single scull event for women, and attempting to better her second-place finish from last year. Stone will be joined by American Mae Joyce Gay of Union Boat Club in the event. Top international competition will likely come from Emma Twigg, New Zealand's Olympic sculler and last year's Princess Royal Challenge Cup winner, Czech Republic's Mirka Knapkova and Great Britian's Debbie Flood.
Several crews from the United States will compete in the Temple Challenge Cup, the elite men's collegiate eight event. Grand Valley State University (Grand Valley, Mich.), Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.), the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, Calif.) and the University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.) will take on competitors both domestic and international. This weekend's draw will see Harvard University facing the University of Southern California in the first round. Last year's IRA-champion Princeton University lightweight crew is the defending champion.
Outside of the Temple Challenge Cup, the most subscribed event this year is the Prince Albert Challenge Cup for men's secondary school and collegiate coxed fours. Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), Grand Valley State University (Grand Valley, Mich.), Eastern Sprints winner Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.), Sprints silver-medalist Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.) and Yale University (New Haven, Conn.) will be racing.
In the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup for men's high school eights, three U.S. crews will be vying for victory - Kent School (Kent, Conn.), St. Joseph's Preparatory School (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Salisbury School (Salisbury, Conn.). The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup will be contested by a total of 32 crews and has been raced since 1946.
Finally, in the Thames Challenge Cup for club eights, the U.S. crew from Potomac Boat Club (Washington, D.C.) has drawn York City Rowing Club for its first-round competition. The Thames Challenge Cup is also contested by 32 crews and has been raced since 1868.
Racing will commence Thursday, July 1. For more information, visit the Henley Royal Regatta's official site at http://www.hrr.co.uk/. Official results will be available at http://www.hrr.co.uk/pdisp.php?pid=316.