Passions ran high at Henley on Saturday, the students and juniors providing most of the excitement on the Fourth of July, especially for US supporters watching the Island student eights as an all-American final was confirmed. Although the final margin between Durham and Washington was two-thirds of a length in favour of the Seattle students, a cracking tussle from the start to the three-quarter mile kept the outcome in doubt for several minutes.
Washington’s signal was always the first to be raised, but a succession of ‘one foot’ margins up the course had UW coach Yas Farooq chewing her nails until the crews started trading bigger pushes at Upper Thames and eventually her oarswomen started to draw clearly ahead. Two races later Brown University vanquished Oxford Brookes in a tough but not quite as close contest, never quite breaking contact with the British crew. This sets up a finals epic for Washington with the squad Farooq describes as ‘our sister club’ and some Fifth of July celebrations for the many American fans of Henley Royal either way.
The crowds applauding the big-name crews in and out of the boat tents have continued to expand and are now taking over most of the boating area grass. However, bin-slamming (the percussion section to the crowd’s cheers) has been banned by officials after at least two of the Regatta’s finest dustbins were broken. Maybe next year the clubs will start bringing their own bins to beat up.
Two clubs with particularly loud supporters took to the water in mid-afternoon to contend what may well turn out to have been the de facto final of the Princess Elizabeth junior eights. Earlier St Edwards’ School had destroyed a hapless King’s College School Wimbledon, walking away from them with insouciant ease. A few races later St Paul’s made a quick Radley eight look slow by stomping all over them in a tight but early-decided race. Realistically Teddies, who have had a disrupted season, will have to up their game considerably to beat St Paul’s, who seem to be coming into their own at exactly the right time.
In terms of club success Thames and Leander go into Sunday with top bragging rights, since each has five non-composite crews in finals. Two of Thames’s semi-final successes were in club eights over the Pink Palace, the Wargrave and the Thames Cup going to the Putney rowers by a total of three lengths across the two races. Molesey will be celebrating either way in the Wargrave, their B crew having defeated Molesey in what started off as a close contest.
They also have a composite with UL in the Bridge final for intermediate W8+, after holding on to a small lead while Yale’s Bulldogs threw push after push at them and reduced the margin to a canvas for most of the last two minutes. Molesey and UL kept their cool while Yale were winding it up to 38, and the Britons finally lifted for a few strokes to knock Yale’s hopes on the head for a half-length win. In student territory it will be the first Sunday since 2015 not to feature an Oxford Brookes club crew — the Brookes members of the Grand eight don’t count — but Newcastle, the subject of rumours that their university is considering scrapping the expensive rowing programme, did themselves proud with a two-thirds length win against Oxford, having hung in against repeated challenges from the Dark Blues.
There will be four straight finals on Sunday of the 2026 regatta, after Leander and Oxford Brookes in the Stewards’ withdrew earlier in the week due to injuries. The Grand and Remenham flagship international eights see the British take on the visiting Italians as a final tune-up for both before the European Championships in Varese in four weeks time.
The Stewards’ final contains the four of the moment, Britain’s peerless world champion M4- of George Bourne, Douwe de Graaf, James Robson and Dan Graham, who are likely to be giving a chilled display of excellence for the crowd against a Nautilus foursome made up of GB returners from American universities. With the entries for the under-23 world championships needing to be submitted by lunchtime on Wednesday 8th July, the youngsters’ time against such stellar opposition may be crucial in deciding whether or not they will be entered as part of the British under-23 team.
Quad sculling is in vogue this year, and after two predictably large margin semi-finals the trophy race will be between the top-rank British and Italian quads. They last met at the Seville world cup in May, with the Brits a smidge under two seconds slower in the final. Team GBR had a confidence-building victory in Lucerne last weekend and it was shaping up to be a corking race on Sunday until they stumbled through a semi-final much closer than it should have been against a thrown-together group of Naval Remo and Skibbereen, also known as the McCarthy brothers (IRL) and the Portuguese double, all ex-lightweights.
The Diamond Challenge Singles (M1x) final is likely to be uneven. On Bucks will be world and Olympic champion Olli Zeidler, pursuing his annual ‘row in lumpy water at three-quarter slide’ training exercise to prepare himself for the swirling winds of the Bosbaan at the worlds in August. Whilst on Berks facing him will be Diogo Gonçalves, the first Portuguese entry to make the HRR finals, a recent under-23 crew sculler and a positive lamb to the slaughter against the six-foot eight-inches German hulk. In the semis Gonçalves had a tussle with South African Chris Baxter, and Zeidler made heavy weather of the wash but pulled steadily away from fellow German Tom Graenitz.
Unfortunately for spectators it’s also improbable that the final of the Princess Royal W1x will have them on tenterhooks. The form that GBR sculler Lauren Henry is in this summer is superb. Add to that her determination to make up for a narrow sunstroke-affected loss at the 2025 world champs and she is unlikely to give any quarter to her opposition, as evidenced by a merciless ‘easily’ verdict against under-23 Dutchwoman Jente Jongsma.
But Magdalena Lobnig, Austria’s Olympic and world bronze medallist who has now turned coastal champion, entered a pitched battle against South Africa’s Paige Badenhorst on Saturday which had everyone on the edge of their seats. Lobnig had the early advantage but didn’t raise the rate as Badenhorst charged and overtook. The Austrian then found a new gear to mount a challenge at the Milepost before sprinting dramatically to take a foot’s lead at the start of the Stewards’ and eventually claim the win by half a length.
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Another pair of returners to high-end sculling are Olympic champions Lucy Spoors and Brooke Francis, who slaughtered all rivals at the New Zealand championships this season and are pot-hunting at the Royal Regatta. On Saturday they had a comfortable win against an Oxford double who clipped the buoys briefly off the start but did recover. Up against the Kiwis are Henley Women’s Aspirational W2x winners Tash Phillips and Hansine Marshall, who might be cannon fodder but posted decent times to the early markers in their semi-final against Upper Thames.
