This year, we sent two girls crews to compete at Henley Women’s regatta where top crews from schools, clubs and universities from across the world come to compete on the prestigious Henley Course from 16 to 18 June.
The J16 4+ of Cleo Gregory, Ella Murray, Amalie Finch, Mia Garvey and Lily Nguyen raced on Friday evening to qualify for the heat stages. The girls really raised their game with one of their best efforts this season and although they managed to beat crews that they had lost to in recent regattas they missed out on the top 8 by just seconds, coming 10th out of the field of 20.
The Girls’ Championship 2x of Florence Carter and Maisie Humphrey were more experienced having raced over the course last year; they looked commanding in their qualifying race on Saturday morning and their strong performance achieved them a place in the first heat that afternoon against Bewl Bridge Rowing Club. After overcoming some steering issues in the early stages of the race Florence and Maisie showed their experience and grit by staying in contact with their opposition down the length or the course, keeping Bewl Bridge under pressure. In the final stages of the race, a determined push by the girls enabled them to row through taking the win in the last 200m and putting them into the quarter finals against Club Nautico, Seville on Sunday morning.
The quarter final saw the Seville crew take an early lead along Temple Island, but again Florence and Maisie stayed in touch whilst underrating their opposition. They continued to push the Spanish double all along the course but this time, they were not quite able to get back on terms, eventually losing by just 1 length.
Well done girls for putting in a great performance over the weekend.
