Day Two of Henley Royal Regatta and all the losing crews from yesterday will have spent last night wondering all those what if questions, not so for the winners of course - through to today and hoping for another classic day of Henley racing out on the Thames under what they might have thought would be beautiful blue and sunlit skies. That of course was not to be, this was going to be a cold, wet and windy start to the day and a real test.
The umpire launches at Henley leave at a very prescribed minute because at Henley Royal Regatta timing is everything, both at the umpire launches and out on the river with the racing crews.
It’s not often at Henley Royal Regatta where you can find a place where you are genuinely on your own, almost the easiest example is to enter one of the single sculls competitions and go out there and race. At that point you are going to need lots of things, mental agility being one of them.
Great grit and determination there from Wilkinson – now with three new women’s events debuting at Henley 2021 could the women’s crews take their example from the warrior Boadicea and take their fight to the enemy?
Flying the flag for women rowers today, two well-known faces who certainly weren’t making their first appearance. Silver medallists in Rio, Great Britain’s Jess Eddie and Katie Greves brought some Olympic flavour to proceedings with a powerful display against the Hinksey Sculling School crew in the Stonor Challenge Trophy.
Definitely some mixed emotions amongst the competitors tonight,rowing at Henley can be both a cruel and a joyous experience. We’ll be back tomorrow night with more racing and hopefully more sunshine.
