For many rowers, competing at Henley Royal Regatta is a highlight of their rowing career, an achievement that takes years of dedicated training and steady improvement to realise. This year however, one crew racing took its first strokes only eight months ago and were able to defeat 18 other Student Women's eights, stacked with many more years of experience, to qualify for The Island Challenge Cup (Women’s Student Eights). This makes them the first-ever all beginner crew to qualify for a Women’s event at Henley Royal Regatta.
Island C, comprised of Edinburgh’s beginner women, have not been shy of success this year. Henley Royal Regatta qualification has marked another achievement for this impressive group, following victories at BUCS (British University & College Sport) Head, BUCS Regatta and the Women’s Head of the River (Academic Pennant) earlier in the season.
Speaking with Mike Hughes, Head Coach of Edinburgh’s Beginners’ Development Programme, he explained that qualification has not come without extensive preparation. Edinburgh University finishes exams earlier than other UK universities, so time is gifted to coaches to develop the athletes towards the pinnacle of summer racing. Hughes highlighted the importance of their Loch Oich training camp as a valuable opportunity to ‘accelerate in terms of our capability and boat speed’. This became evident in their professional and well-versed handling of the infamous course in Friday’s time trials.
Qualification for The Island Challenge Cup writes this crew’s name in the history books, as they compete alongside two other Edinburgh women’s eights. What an all-beginner qualification might mean for the ongoing development of Edinburgh’s rowing programme is on Hughes’ mind, who said: ‘I don’t think it's really dawned on me yet how important this might be. I don’t think this achievement can be underestimated’.
Qualifying demonstrates the central objective of the University’s programme. Edinburgh places emphasis on the long-term development of their beginners, who later transition into and enhance the depth of their senior squads. Hughes expressed that ‘the beginner programme is important to the club’s success at a senior level’, whilst also professing admiration at the calibre and capacity of Edinburgh University students, describing them as ‘incredibly driven and motivated’. Noting the persisting success of Hughes’ approach to working with novice rowers, these core attributes must play a role in preparing his crew for the challenges that Henley Royal Regatta brings.
Edinburgh University qualified in every entry they submitted to the Regatta in 2025, illustrating the benefits of a well-resourced programme, supported by four full-time coaches alongside strength & conditioning, physiotherapy and sports psychology services. This said, the novices who have rowed their way into the history books this year were not equipped with top-of-the-range boat fleets to learn to row; their beginner boat shed houses ‘boats older than those learning to row in them’. Hughes’ beginners took to rowing with little to no idea of what Henley Royal Regatta is, let alone what it might mean to compete between the booms. This Regatta, he conveyed, is ‘an ambition that grows in our beginners throughout the year.’
The crew shared Hughes' elation on what had been an ambitious possibility for novice rowers. ‘We knew to even get a place on the Draw was going to require serious mental and physical effort, probably more than all of us had ever fathomed. It felt like a clean time trial from start to finish, which as beginners is often hard to chase. As any of the athletes here will feel, we now have this opportunity to see how far we can push’.
Edinburgh’s beginners will face St Andrew’s University on Wednesday, 2 July. Race results aside, their performance is indicative of the fact that racing at Henley Royal Regatta does not have to remain a dream, but an achievement for other beginner programs to aspire towards.
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