Henley Women’s Regatta
Henley Women’s Regatta is one of the last races of the season for many of the women’s squad, and is also one of the biggest goals over the competition calendar outside of BUCS. Bringing together crews from across the globe this 1500m two lane racing offers one of the toughest challenges to crews, just metres away from the spectators on the bank. The event is spread over three days, with qualifying time trials and some early heats for many of the categories starting on Friday. Crews are then progressively knocked out over weekend stages to the Sunday finals. This year was biggest entry yet at Henley Women’s for UoNBC, with 7 entries including; academic aspirational 2x, two coxless 4‘s, and 8+, lightweight 2x, championship 2x, and development 4+.
The development 4+ didn’t make it through the time trial stage but secured the strongest finish of the regional crews entered, promising to work on at the start of next season. Coming off the win at BUCS regatta, the novice women’s 8+ faced stiff competition in their category, missing out narrowly on the knock out stages as the fastest non-qualifiers. The coxless four that has been finding form throughout the season took an easy win in the first round after making it through the qualifiers, but unfortunately ended their campaign on the hard side of a close race all the way down the course against a crew from the University of London.
Notable performances came from the two doubles, lightweight and championship. First years Eva Hill and Jemima Price continued their partnership from BUCS and the recent regattas, winning the time trial and showing fantastic promise for their coming seasons at Nottingham, falling just short of the win in the final against an international crew from Tulsa University, USA. Though they managed the 3rd fastest qualifying time, the draw put an early challenge to the championship double of seasoned scullers Lucy Gillbanks and Imogen North, racing up at the highest level, losing out on Saturday to Reading University.