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
So, day three of Henley Royal Regatta. As many of our events come down from 32 entries to two on Sunday, we have a rest day for the Temple, the Brit, and the Princess Elizabeth. Again, we pick that up because this is not usual for people (since the Regatta was extended to six days last year). The coaches and the teams are going to have to manage that. And we're getting started with other events today. The Town, which is the elite coxless fours. Princess Grace, the women's quads. Hambleden, Stonor - the pair, and the double for the women, and the Princess Royal, which is the women's singles. I've picked many ones to watch because this is a really exciting day of racing.
CONDITIONS: Weather. My Met check said there's no rain, which is clearly a lie. We've got the winds still - the winds are just moving around today. What I saw on the water yesterday while umpiring was the conditions were a little bit easier than we saw on Tuesday.
It was a straighter wind, so boats weren't being moved around so much. It didn't stop us getting that one disqualification… So, I anticipate another cross wind again. It might be lighter. But let's watch out for it. The strongest winds are coming this morning over our racing period.
So lots going there. Here are my ones to watch.
RACES TO WATCH
3 9.10 Jubilee 549 Wycliffe Junior R.C. 'B' vs 518 Marlow R.C.
I've started on Race 3 and the Jubilee. I've picked this because it's Wycliffe Junior ‘B’ against Marlow. Of course we'd expect Marlow to win that, but yet last year we saw Windsor Boys School in the Fawley get both the A and B boat to the final.
I really like what I see in their squad at Wycliffe. The girls are all sort of on the edge of the squad in that B boat, so they're really good quality athletes. So let's see how they go against the senior group.
7 9.35 Wyfold 373 Tyne A.R.C. vs 345 K.A.R.Z.V. De Hoop, NED
Race number 7 in the Wyfold, Tyne against De Hoop. We've seen Tyne come through from behind twice, so they've probably spent an awful lot of energy doing that, but it’s a really interesting race profile, so worth watching for that as the boats come down the course.
9 9.45 Island 198 R.S.V.U. Okeanos, NED 182 Newcastle University 'A'
In the Island, great to see the women's student races hotting up. In race number 9, the Dutch against Newcastle ‘A’. Probably a shock to Newcastle ‘A’ that they beat Princeton yesterday. It's great to see them still in the Regatta. I think they will have been planning their campaign to finish yesterday, so they're still here and they've got the Dutch to play with.
15 10.20 PP 287 Winter Park Crew, USA vs 266 Hinksey Sculling School
Number 15. Prince Philip. We saw Winter Park last year and they were new to the Regatta. We even asked them to qualify, and then they went all the way to the final. This boat has a number of those finalists in it. They meet Hinksey Sculling School, which is a community club which we're seeing getting stronger and stronger and stronger.
16 10.30 PRCC 718 C.N. Grzeskowiak, AUS vs 719 M.K.R. Hodgkins Byrne
Going to 16 now. In the Princess Royal, I've got the Australian Henley Women's Regatta winner Grzeskowiak. Matilda's (Hodgkins Byrne) story is interesting because she was in Tokyo in the Quad. I think they came seventh in that. We've seen her in, as part of the squad, and then she had a baby and she's coming back from that.
25 11.20 Town 301 Waikato, NZL vs 299 Thames R.C.
Let's move to the Town where it’s great to see the New Zealanders. They're the under-23s up against the Thames. And what's interesting about this and why I'm picking this up is we've got some winners in the Thames boat who won the club event for women, the Wargrave, last year. What that means in our rules is they can't come back to the same event and so the only option for them at the moment is the open event for women. They had to make that step up. So they're in an international elite event having won a Club event.
31 12.00 P. Wales 427 Triton & Dudok van Heel, NED vs 408 Leander Club
Race 31, the Prince of Wales. I'm really excited about this event this year, so I'm going to be boring about it. I think the quality and quantity are very, very good. We saw Leander beat the GB Development Boat two days ago, and so I want to see how they now go against Triton. Leander have traditionally been very, very strong in this event. I think they thought they were going home at 9 o'clock on Wednesday and they're still here. We'll see what happens.
35 12.20 PRCC 727 J.L. Titterington vs 716 D. Dymchenko, AZE
And then the last race before lunch, we've got Jennifer Titterington against Diana Dymchenko, AZE. Dymchenko does beach sprints as well as being part of many Henley Regattas, where we’ve seen her in semifinals in 2018, 2019, and 2022. She came 6th in the World Cup recently, so great to see her back at the regatta.
54 3.45 Jubilee 529 Pymble Ladies' College, AUS vs 539 Sir William Perkins's School
Now to race 54. And we've got PLC, Pymble Ladies College from Australia who are up against Sir William Perkins. And Sir William Perkins got knocked out of their quarter final at Henley Women's Regatta, but just by a little bit, so it'll be interesting to have those two crews do it for the longer distance.
66 6.00 PRCC 732 M. Zeidler, GER vs 726 G.A. Robinson Ranger
After tea, the Princess Royal comes again and this is an interesting match up. We’ve got Marie-Sophie Zeidler, Ollie Zeidler's sister. Ollie is the world champion at the moment, and he came from swimming, so it’s a fantastic sporting family. Marie's story is very interesting; she's had some ill health that she's been struggling with for a while and that has meant she hasn't been selected for the quad, but she has been competing for Germany, and she's going to plan to switch to sweep after this, aiming to get to Paris 2024. She comes up against Robinson Ranger who learnt to row at Upper Thames. She then went to Henley Rowing Club. She's now at University of London. As she says in her bio, she knows the water well even if she's not that experienced in this event. This race is definitely worth watching.
77 7.05 Thames 30 D.R.C. Hannover, GER vs 35 Lea R.C.
And then finally race 77 with the Thames and it's the boat I didn't pick up on yesterday, with the Hanover against Lea race. It's great to see that combination of athletes from Germany and Ukraine come together and compete for this boat in that race. Lea have featured heavily in this regatta, so it's really great to see them still competing on Thursday.
