Rowers gain experience at Henley ahead of the Royal Regatta

Over half term, the Girls 1st Quad and Boys 1st VIII travelled to Henley to train on the Henley Royal Regatta course.

We were fortunate to be hosted by Leander Club while in Henley and it was wonderful to see several Old Salopians training out of the club including Matt Rowe (SH ’16) who has been selected alongside Louis Nares (I, ’19) to race for Great Britain in the Rowing World Cup III as part of Project LA.

The time on the course was invaluable for those steering, Nat and Sophie, as the crews will race between floating wooden booms that are far less forgiving than the usual marker buoys. The regatta runs over 2112 meters so it was useful for the crew to get used to the different landmarks on the course in the relative calm pre-regatta.

The Senior Girls will be back on the course in two weekends’ time at the Henley Women’s Regatta. Both Squads will be racing at the Henley Royal Regatta, the qualifiers take place on the 28th June and the regatta proper runs from the 2nd-7th July.

The crews also raced at the Metropolitan Regatta on the Sunday to get some race experience in the different boat types to those they race the previous weekend at the National Schools Regatta. The crews were mainly competing against senior club and university crews. The Quad placed 7th of 13 and the VIII placed 32nd of 65 crews.

Athol Hundermark

Director of Rowing