Henley Royal 2025 ended with a spine-tingling Diamonds final, a brief address by the President of World Rowing, guest prizegiver Jean-Christophe Rolland, and a final ceremony which for the first time involved 27 trophies, the most recent addition the spectacular silver and gold Bridge Challenge Plate trophy.
Thames became the inaugural victors in the new event for elite W8+, demolishing Oxford Brookes’ top non-internationals mercilessly. In a day when the big clubs shared their regular trophies it was London who claimed the Thames Challenge Cup (over Thames), Thames who reverse the result in the Britannnia and Molesey the Wargrave women’s club eights (over Leander). The ladies in black also broke their own Barrier and Fawley records — set in earlier rounds this week — and chopped an impressive 19 seconds off their 2022 crew’s course mark while becoming champions.
Britain’s stand-out single sculler, Lauren Henry, teased the crowd for a few minutes as Denmark’s Frida Nielsen led to Fawley, but fulfilled a long-held ambition by taking the Princess Royal trophy with a stunning charge. Henry had come into the regatta hoping to set a record, and whilst she didn’t quite have the weather luck to be able to break Maria Brandin’s 1995 Barrier mark during the early rounds, it all came good in the final.
Nielsen used the only possible tactic, to go off like a rocket, and managed to stay ahead of Henry for an impressive four minutes before the GB prodigal started to do the business, lifting the rate and soaring through the Dane to write her name into the history books. She also booked a place on the penultimate page of the 2026 programme by breaking Jeannine Gmelin’s 2018 mark and thus lowering the record by seven seconds. It’s worth noting that Henry is still aged 23: this is a very different result from the City of Leicester sculler’s first final: a three-foot loss to her later Olympic team-mate Lola Anderson, back in 2021 when Henry was still aged nineteen.
As befits these historic singles contests, the Diamonds was equally interesting. Giantkiller Finn Hamill (NZL) had the chance to slaughter his third consecutive Olympic-medallist sculler after taking out Simon van Dorp (NED) and Olli Zeidler (GER) on Friday and Saturday. What the Kiwi didn’t know was that van Dorp had headed straight round to see team-mate Melvin Twellaar as soon as the other Dutchman had qualified for the final match against Hamill, in case Twellaar needed help. Whatever advice van Dorp gave, it worked.
With the rapt crowds watching, the familiar pattern started to show once more. Twellaar’s initial lead held at first, then began to be eroded around Fawley as Hamill began to grind the gears. Twellaar pushed back, fending off the Kiwi, but the indefatigable Hamill tried again after Remenham. Inch by inch the gap closed, Hamill scaring two geese away from his sculls as they flickered through the water, never giving up. Twellaar meanwhile was pumping the rate, lifting to 36 at the Milepost, the crowd screaming. Still Hamill came, closing the gap stroke by stroke, rating 39, then 41, hunting the Dutchman down, and finally shortening and sprinting to 46 past the Progress Boards. But Twellaar had done everything right, pounding out a big lead then lifting his own rate early enough to be able to hold off the New Zealander. It cost him, but the reward was a pineapple cup and the famous diamond silver sculls pin.
It was little consolation for an incredible sculler — and coastal world champion — who put himself on the line for his sport this weekend, but Hamill had already claimed a Henley trophy and medal. It was the Double Sculls with his crewmate Ben Mason, the two of them snatching victory from Australia’s duo with a perfectly timed burn through the middle of the course before lunch. Hamill’s father Rob, himself an Olympian and world silver medallist who rescued Finn from drowning during a free-dive two years ago, was nearly in tears on the raft as Finn came in from the exhausting second race.
Another proud Olympian parent, umpire’s panel chair Sir Matthew Pinsent, had to look on as his daughter Eve had to settle for the Marlow junior quad she strokes being runners-up to holders Wycliffe College in the Diamond Jubilee. At least Marlow have the satisfaction of being one of the quickest JW4x in Henley history, having lost to a fantastic Wycliffe crew which equalled the Barrier record and lowered the Fawley and finish times in their race by five and four seconds respectively. Marlow also lost the elite men’s quads ten minutes earlier, the Prince of Wales trophy going to the high-quality former under-23s from Germany, Bonner & Erster. But it was not Germany’s day in the women’s quads, where the Dutch took the Princess Grace Challenge Cup from them reasonably easily despite some unnerving steering from both crews.
Records tumbled like ninepins, a total of four Barrier marks and two finish records being equalled, most notably the Grand where Australia beat the Netherlands along with the 2018 Aussie team’s time to the finish line. But with a good tailwind shrieking up the Thames most of the day, it was the second half of the course which saw the most spectacular fireworks, a stunning total of 17 Fawley or finish records being broken.
The Town Challenge Cup against the top Dutch four was a difficult test for the British W4-, doubling up in the Remenham later, and with variable success internationally this season. It proved a step too far as the Dutch quickly took a firm hold on the race which they never relinquished. Both crews had a tendency to veer into the centre of the course, keeping umpire Guin Batten busy, but very narrowly managed to avoid hitting one another despite some close calls. Leander and Reading (GBR) appealed at the end, but Batten judged that it hadn’t affected the outcome of the race and turned the appeal down.
Wily and experienced Dutchwomen Roos de Jong and Berthe Boonstra were up against the equally tactical and battle-scarred Greeks, Zoi Fitsiou and Evangelia Anastasiadou, who have just made the transition from lightweight Olympians to openweight. The powerful Dutch duo led the final of the Stonor out early and got one length without trouble, but were never allowed to open up more than that, and before Upper Thames the Greeks started to turn the screw, were initially repelled by the Dutch, but inexorably closed to a strong overlap by the regatta enclosure then accelerated again and took the lead in front of the cheering crowds. The verdict was given as a generous foot (more like a few inches on the photofinish replay) and the Greeks took their first big scalp of the season, after several minutes wait after the line while the result was confirmed.
Other international results were less surprising, though the British women’s eight will be determined to find new speed after losing the Remenham to the Dutch, and the Jurkovic sisters (CRO) won’t be happy to have lost the Hambleden pairs by a considerable margin to two retired US Olympians, Maddie Wanamaker and Claire Collins. However Croatia’s double-brothers four, a full house of Sinkovics on Loncarics, swept through Canada’s new Holland-Beker-winning quartet without pity to claim the Stewards’ crown, while Rowing Australia confirmed that their new eight has real speed and added the Netherlands to the list of top eights they have upset this week, which might just give the Aussies enough reason to keep this combination together until the worlds.
There was good news for two GB men’s crews, one at the top of its game, the other new hopefuls. The Queen Mother final was a race between the Lucerne-winning British and Australia’s quad. The difference between the two on the Rotsee had been 7.5 seconds, which the Brits maintained on the 112m longer Henley course, rowing through the Aussies powerfully and taking a second off the course record. At the other end of the career scale under-23s Marcus Chute and Theo Bell, racing as their current university, Princeton, pushed Dutch brothers Ralf and Rik Rienks to their limit and held them to a length in the Goblets. The Dutchmen take the silverware home, but Chute and Bell, who now return to Caversham to prepare for the under-23 worlds, have made a significant reputational mark and will be a great addition to the squad this summer.
Oxford Brookes rowers have longed for a fairytale ending to this year, after coaching changes forced by their university management due to complicated allegations by former members left the team undermined. It seems the Brookes rowers here do not agree with their university’s decisions – and they made this obvious with a dignified gesture, that of writing the names of their former coaches beside the coxing seats on their boats.
Alas the perfect finale did not come for the Temple crew, beaten despite all their efforts by Harvard’s phenomenal lightweight crew. The Crimson 150-lb oarsmen and their cox, Anya Cheng, closed out an unbeaten season with a triumphant three-quarter length win over Brookes, matching every push the UK students made without showing any doubt. Unfortunately for Brookes that was only the first defeat of four on Sunday. Brookes’ elite eight was beaten by Leander in the Ladies’ Plate, the Bridge crew losing to Thames and the Visitors’ four was sent packing by the excellent Leander and Tideway Scullers outfit who took six seconds off the record and which is packed with oarsmen who would be an asset to the national team.
There has been a year of muttering around school boathouses regarding the large number of new recruits lured to Shiplake by their multiple sixth form rowing scholarships [rate-capped 2km erg cutoff 6 minutes 50 for male and 7:50 for female applicants]. The hard work with juniors is getting them into the sport and creating strong rowing fundamentals, so for a dedicated coach to see them leave for a rival school just as they are beginning to reach first eight standard is tough. As a result, Shiplake getting to the finals of both the Princess Elizabeth JM8+ and Prince Philip JW8+ has not been particularly popular.
In the junior women’s eights Headington knew they had to get out early and did so, registering a canvas lead at the island which they stretched to half a length by the Barrier, reaching that just outside the record. After that Shiplake started the charge, steadily reeling them back in inch by inch. Along the Enclosures they levelled but Headington responded by raising their rate to a sprint, went ahead again and managed to hold on for a quarter of a length win, along with the course record by four seconds.
The Princess Elizabeth JM8+ was a different matter, Shiplake the stronger crew (and National Schools champions) took an unsurprising lead, but Radley, with acres of club experience in this event, refused to let them get away. Push after push followed, but Shiplake rolled with the punches and kept grinding away and accelerating until they crossed the line a length up. Only Shiplake’s third ever final, but their first PE win, and the shrieks from the bank were deafening as parents raced from Stewards to the boat tents to greet the newly crowned winners.
The Wyfold club M4- final was delayed until lunchtime after London encountered a log on their way to the stakeboat, thought there was no damage, so carried on to the race. However it rapidly became clear that London were having trouble staying straight, and after a clash which stopped both crews, the umpire sent them paddling to the boat tents, with instructions for London to check their steering. At some point after the log clash the screw holding the fin on had dropped out, so the re-row was rescheduled for early afternoon, during which London’s class was obvious, and they won by 2.5 lengths. Windsor Boys took the Fawley JM4x from Hinksey Sculling School by 4.5 lengths, Rutgers gleefully beat Newcastle on their first visit to Henley Royal for the Island student women’s eights, and UL carved through Edinburgh for the Prince Albert student coxed fours.
