All the things you need to know about the racing today at Henley Royal Regatta with Sarah Winckless, Race Umpire, Steward and Olympic medallist.
OVERVIEW
Welcome. Semi finals day for Wyfold, Brit and Prince Albert. And yesterday, I think, notably records. So, Winter Park in the Prince Philip set a new record to the Barrier, to Fawley, and the Course. And then St Catherine's came down the Course later and broke their Barrier time and equaled their Fawley time.
They are not due to meet until the semi final, which will be tomorrow. In the Island, one of the other new women's events, Oxford Brookes broke the Barrier and the Fawley time. I don't think we're going to be troubled by record times later on today. Yesterday we talked about Oxford Brookes. Today, I thought I'd pick up on Thames Rowing Club.
They’ve got 12 crews in the draw. We've got two in the Stewards we’ve yet to see. We've got the Hambleden pair of Cassidy and Wesselmann later on today, two in the Thames, one in the Wyfold, one in the Brit, and amazingly four in the Wargrave.
So, of that women's event (the Island) Thames are now owning the bottom half of that draw. And we'll talk about those races later.
CONDITIONS: We've got some rain forecast at lunchtime. And the wind is due to go from the south west. So we expect that to be hitting the athletes pretty much straight up the course. So, holding headwinds and long races. Yeah, tough racing. Conditions yesterday were beautiful. Let's hope it stays that way.
Here are my ones to watch.
RACES TO WATCH
1 9.00 Jubilee 527 Oregon Rowing Unlimited, USA vs 544 The Tideway Scullers' School
I'm going to go for the first race of the day, why not? Oregon and Tideway Scullers’ School, they both did absolutely equal times yesterday to the Fawley and the Barrier, so I think that could go all the way down the track.
12 10.05 Wyfold 345 K.A.R.Z.V. De Hoop, NED vs 347 London R.C.
This is London's fastest crew. I think it's going to be a fantastic race. De Hoop are full of internationals. I think they've had an Australian who came over and he started rowing sculls. He then went to row in Brisbane, Australia. A really interesting international crew there against, obviously, London Rowing Club, who've been training on the Tideway.
15 10.20 Jubilee 535 Shiplake College 'A' vs 549 Wycliffe Junior R.C. 'B'
We've been following this Wycliffe A and B crew. We would, as I said yesterday, not expect them to go much further but yesterday they proved me wrong again, so it's great to see that, and I say this almost as we saw Windsor Boys a couple of years ago going all the way to the final in different halves of the draw.
21 11.00 PE 244 St. Paul's School vs 217 Brisbane Boys' Coll., AUS
Brisbane Boys College have come over and they look fantastic. St. Paul's are holders of the event. Yesterday, Brisbane were quicker to both points, Fawley and the Barrier by a couple of seconds. However, let's see what happens down the whole track when these two crews meet. That's going to be fantastic, I hope.
LUNCHEON INTERVAL
37 2.05 PP 265 Henley R.C. vs 264 Headington School
Going to after lunch. Race 37 and the Prince Philip. Headington won at Women's Henley a couple of weeks ago over the shorter track. Let's see how those young athletes fare down the long track. And there's going to certainly be a lot of home support for the Henley girls.
39 2.15 PE 246 Shiplake College vs 232 Marin R.A., USA
Going to 39, Shiplake yesterday came through from behind to win their race, so they will have emptied the tank. Marin have come here, they look fantastic, beating Shrewsbury quite easily yesterday. But keep an eye on the Shiplake boat, they definitely have got a huge amount of fight in them.
43 2.40 Fawley 456 Marlow R.C. 'A' vs 450 Los Gatos R.C., USA
Then we have Marlow 'A' and Los Gatos USA. Great to see those two crews race. They did the same time to the Barrier yesterday. So that is a great combo.
46 3.00 PRCC 731 M. Wieliczko, POL vs 726 G.A. Robinson Ranger
I umpired Wieliczko yesterday. She had a beautiful run down the course. She is an international, having come out of the big boats to race in the Princess Royal. But then we saw Robinson Ranger beat Zeidler yesterday, which is a significant scalp for her. Let's see how she goes against the Polish athlete.
51 3.30 PE 241 St. Edward's School vs 223 Eton College
Then we have a classic Princess Elizabeth contest between Teddies and Eton. We're very used to seeing Eton in the finals day of the PE. Let's see if St. Edward's can upset them.
TEA INTERVAL
63 5.40 Wargrave 79 Thames R.C. 'B' vs 80 Thames R.C. 'C'
This is when we start to get quite interested in the Wargrave. Thames B against Thames C. If you're ever going to have an exciting rivalry, you want a ‘C’ boat to beat a ‘B’ boat.
79 7.15 Diamonds 711 W.E. Young 681 vs S.N.B. Cox, ZIM
And then 79 with the Diamonds. Will Young has been in good form all this year and he's up against Cox from Zimbabwe who is the recipient of the IOC fund.
81 7.30 Britannia 563 London R.C. vs 575 Thames R.C. 'A'
And then I'm going to pick the last semi final and the last race of the day. London Rowing Club against Thames A. This is going to be a fantastic race. I suspect it could go all the way down the course.
