Henley Royal Regatta set for a record breaking domestic entry

Henley Royal Regatta is set for one its largest ever entries, are you ready?

This summer’s Henley Royal Regatta sees an incredible 768 Entries from 19 nations, including a record 589 domestic entry and 179 from overseas. 4,367 athletes will compete in 404 races across the six-day Regatta.

Richard Phelps, Chair of the Committee for Henley Royal Regatta, said: “In my first year as Chair, I couldn’t have asked for a more exciting entry. We have incredible Olympic representation in the premier events with an eye-watering prospect of seeing the best Olympic rowing nations racing side-by-side down the Henley course. In addition, we are thrilled by such a large domestic entry, and can’t wait to see which junior, student and club crews are crowned victors come Finals Sunday.

“Arguably the favourite to win is Great Britain’s Lauren Henry, fresh from a dominating performance at the World Rowing Cup this month, where she won the gold medal by more than eight seconds”

“Equally exciting is the entry in our new women’s event, ‘The Bridge Challenge Plate’. This new event reinforces Henley Royal Regatta’s commitment to achieving gender parity on the water. This provides a much-needed bridge between the top premier events and our club/student events and it’s great to see so many British clubs raise their game in order to be the first holders of this trophy.”

In The Princess Royal Challenge Cup, a strong field includes Lithuania’s first representation at Henley Royal Regatta since 2016, with Viktorija Senkuté set to compete. Her bronze medal in the single sculls at the 2024 Paris Games was Lithuania’s first in any sport at those Games, making Senkuté a national hero in the process. Arguably the favourite to win is Great Britain’s Lauren Henry, fresh from a dominating performance at the World Rowing Cup this month, where she won the gold medal by more than eight seconds. She will look to continue a sparkling run of form which has seen her set a European best time and win gold at the European Rowing Championships.

This year’s Entry in both The Grand Challenge Cup and The Remenham Challenge Cup are set to be one of the strongest in recent history. In both events, the top nations of Great Britain, Netherlands and Australia will battle it out once again after going head-to-head in the Olympic final. In the Grand, the victorious Cambridge Boat Race crew have joined the fray adding Tom Ford who stroked the GB gold medal winning crew in Paris last year.

Meanwhile, The Queen Mother Challenge Cup will certainly be one to keep an eye on at this year’s event. The Irish entry with two Olympic champions on board, Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan, will be hoping to cause an upset but will face strong competition from the Great Britain and Australian national crews. Meanwhile, Leander Club will be hoping to retain the title they won in 2024.

In the Junior eights, all eyes will be on Shiplake College BC to see if they can repeat their amazing ‘double’ when they won the boys and girls Championship Eights at The National Schools Regatta, a feat never achieved before. Expect tough resistance from the defending title holders, St. Paul’s School BC and Headington School BC respectively. Also look out for strong US and Australian crews who could upset all domestic school plans.

Strong domestic and overseas entries will challenge current title holders, Oxford Brookes University BC, in both the Temple and Island Challenge Cups. At BUCS Regatta, Newcastle University BC beat Brookes in the Women’s Championships Eights and in doing so threw down the gauntlet for them to respond at this year’s Regatta. Other contenders, including University of London BC, Durham University BC, and Aegir from the Netherlands, will also look to test the defending champions.

In the Temple, the spotlight will be on the Harvard lightweights who are undefeated this season as well as the Cambridge University Boat Club crew which is principally the winning Goldie crew from this year’s Boat Race, and Durham University BC who pushed Brookes in the BUCS final.

In the Wargrave, Molesey BC have been pushing current title holders, Thames RC, all season. In The Thames Challenge Cup, London RC will look to continue their strong run, while international crews – particularly De Hoop from the Netherlands – will be ones to watch.