Henley Rowing Club

Founded 1839

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GHENT INTERNATIONAL

Henley Rowing Club's senior men's, woman's and junior women's squad travelled to Belgium to take part in the Ghent International Regatta at the weekend. The club returned having won four gold, three silver and three bronze medals. All squads competed on both days at the event.

The men's squad put 'up extremely competitive performances which resulted in almost all boats making the finals and a medal haul of two gold, two silver and two bronze medals. Gold medals were won by the coxed four of Andrew Murray, James Padmore, Dominic Pivonka and Kathryn Meah. They beat a field of fours from Britain and Europe on both days, with the strongest challenge coming from Thames Rowing Club. Henley Rowing Club's silver medalists were Dorian Weber, who put in an impressive per­formance in the men's lightweight single sculls, and the double scull of Richard Guiver and Vincent Caudrelier showing immense improvement throughout the weekend to get within a few inches of gold medal position. The bronze med­als were provided by David Read in the men's single sculls. David sculled well in a strong field being right at the front of the pack for much of his finals.

The men's eight of Robert McGow, Thomas Cannon, Nicholas Mead, Roger Ewing, Robert Kennedy, Christopher Clark, Ross Barnes, Elliot Cole and cox Sophia Gold put in some very impres­sive performances which resulted in a place in the final on both days. The crew finished in fifth position against a strong field of crews from the UK, Ireland and Belgium.

The senior women's squad also raced on both the Saturday and Sunday in Ghent. The lightweight crews of Rachel Willis, Lynsey Wiggins, Anna Booth and Juliet Hookey in the women's coxless four and Steph Cooke and Tamara Simmons in the women's pair came up against tough competition in both their disciplines. Despite putting in brave performances in the heats they both missed out on places in the final by only a couple of seconds being out powered by the open weight competition. On the Saturday morning, the wom­en's quad scull of Bethan Thomas, Nicci Meadows, Alex Cairns and Victoria Wood didn't row to their full potential but managed to secure, the last qualifying spot for the final The final comprised all English crews and with a stronger performance the Henley boat finished fourth, ahead of Imperial College, London.

Twelve members of the junior girl’s squad returned with two gold medals, a silver and a bronze. The format for the junior events differs from the seniors and whilst the crews race five abreast the result is based on the fastest times from across all the heats, so whilst a crew may be winning its heat comfortably it needs to continue to push for the fastest time possible to ensure it beats winners of other heats.

One of the most exciting races for the girls was the junior quads event where the Henley girls (Daisy Collsel, Gemma Hall, Pippa Whittaker and Jenny Arnold) and a composite Belgian crew led the field by 250 meters. At 750 meters gone the Belgians had a one length lead but a push by the Henley girls brought the boats back level by 1,000 meters with 250 meters to go the boats were still neck and neck but a tremendous sprint by the Belgians saw them pull out to clear water to leave the Henley girls in second place and the silver medal. This was a very fast race and even the Henley second place time would have seen them winning the open women quad event.

The same four girls on the Sunday competed in coxless fours. This was a completely dif­ferent race where the girls dominated their heat and easily won the event to take the gold by nine seconds over the second place crew Ligue de Lorraine of France. An hour earlier Jenny and Pippa had won the girls pairs event where they beat local rival Marlow by just 0.8 of a second.

The Henley J15squad had to compete in the older age category of J18 or J16. On Saturday in the J18 quads event the crew of Bryony Stephens, Becci Norman, Amy Fitzgibbon and Charlotte Mills turned in a very creditable performance to finish third in their heat and on overall time in the middle of the event. On Sunday Jess Gough stepped into the bow seat for the crew to compete in the J16 quads. The crew raced well and won their heat which left a nervous wait whilst the other heats finished and they waited for the overall times which showed they had taken the bronze medal slot.

Abbie Stephens, Lizzie Blair, Gemma Hall, and Florence Lock were another group who had to compete at the older age group due to the differences in FISA. and ARA age rules.

On Saturday in J18 coxless fours they had a very tight heat but raced well to finish third in heat and again overall to finish in the middle of the pack.

On Sunday in J18 quads the girls raced exceptionally well against the older crews and just finished out of the medal position in fourth place.

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