The Start Line: Sunny with a chance of qualifying
Get ready for another brilliant weekend of racing across the UK and at World Cup Lucerne
Credit: AllMarkOne
Join us at The Start Line and look ahead to a blockbuster few days of racing across the UK and in Switzerland.
Henley Royal Regatta: Loading
Friday will see 492 crew competing at the Qualifiers for Henley Royal Regatta. For over six hours, boats from across the world will race down the Henley course, trying to book themselves one of the 160 available spots ahead of Saturday’s draw. Arguably the toughest event to qualify for will be the Fawley Challenge Cup for Open Junior Quads. 73 crews entered this year’s event and 59 have been instructed to race Qualifiers. subject to withdrawal, the fastest 10 crews will qualify meaning a 17% chance of making the main draw. It’s a similarly tight affair in the Prince Albert Challenge Cup and The Temple Challenge Cup. In the past twelve months the number of entries in the PA have boomed, more than doubling the number of entries last year. That means for those racing tomorrow, there’s a 23% chance of hearing their name read out at Saturday’s draw. 50 eights will be racing for just 10 qualifying spots in the Temple.
Since their inception in 2021, the new Women’s events have been incredibly popular and it’s a similar story for the Bridge Challenge Cup. The event for Intermediate Women’s Eights features 11 entries and all of them have been pre-qualified. Despite the introduction of the new event, entries have continued to rise for the Wargrave Challenge Cup for Women’s Club Eights. 42 crews have entered, five more than last year and 30 will go to qualifiers with 12 advancing through, under a third of those racing.
While the Town Challenge Cup for Premier Women’s Coxless Fours will see just six crews racing tomorrow, it’s a winner takes all showdown with one crew advancing to Saturday’s draw.
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More information about Henley Royal Regatta Qualifiers can be found here.
Peterborough City set to host it’s Junior Regatta
Saturday will see 1,000m racing return to Peterborough. J13s, J14s and J15s will travel to Peterborough City’s iconic rowing course on Saturday for a packed schedule of racing. As is so often the case, time trials will kick off the day’s proceedings with crews being seeded into finals based on their performances. All side-by-side racing on Peterborough’s Regatta course is done over four lanes, meaning we’re in store for some cracking finals later on in the day. With medals awarded for the three crew finishing in podium positions, there will also be the overall Victor Ludorum awarded as well as additional prizes to the individuals showcasing the ‘Best Cox’ and ‘Best Watermanship’ skills.
The most popular events will be the WJ15 Single Scull and the WJ14 Coxed Quads in the morning and the WJ14 Single Scull in the afternoon. All of these events will have 24 boats competing with the fastest 16 crews being seeded and racing in Finals A though D.
Keep an eye on some the Open events as well. The Doubles are set to be brilliant with 20 boats on the start list for both the J14 and J15 events while not to be out done, the WJ15 Coxed Quads and the Doubles have very healthy entries as well.
Some of the fastest racing will come in the Octos. The biggest boat classes will have entries from across the age categories with the most popular being the WJ14 Octos which will have 13 crews racing in the time trial with the top eight crews advancing through to either A or B Finals;
Racing kicks off at 08:32 running all the way through until 18:10 when we will have the A final of the WJ13 Octos followed by the fastest race of the day, the Open J15 Octos.
All information about Peterborough Junior Regatta can be found here.
What else is on this weekend?
- Reading Town – more information
- Bradford Sprint – more information
- Egham – more information
- GB vs France Match Trials – more information
Great Britain back on the road for World Cup Lucerne
The Great Britain Rowing team have landed in Switzerland and are ready to take on the world. The second World Cup Regatta takes place on the famous ‘lake of the gods,’ a favourite venue for many athletes. Last time out at Varese, Great Britain were second on the medal table with three gold and two bronze medals and three days of phenomenal racing will all kick off tomorrow.
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That’s all from the start line this week!
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