Henley Women's Regatta 2021 was a great chance for the club community to come together to watch and compete in some exciting racing. We had six crews entered throughout the competition racing across all three days. Unlike the usual 2000m multi-lane racing, Henley Women's is a side-by-side event held over 1400m (1500m usually) which creates a fairly unique and exciting racing environment.
On Friday evening the time trials for both the J16 coxless Quad and J16 coxed four occurred, where both crews performed competitive time-trials with the four only marginally missing out on qualifying by 6 seconds. Saturday morning saw the other four Headington crews time-trial in the single, double, coxed four and eight. The results from the time trial had the coxed four entering heats in 5th position and the eight who performed well in their time trial being seeded straight into the quarterfinals on Sunday.
The four went on to race in the heats on Saturday afternoon where they competed in the fastest race of the round. Despite a well rowed and fought race they narrowly missed out making it through to the quarter-finals.
Going straight into the quarter-finals on Sunday morning the eight had a strong race and crossed the finish line 3 ½ lengths ahead of their opposition. They then managed to maintain this success into their semi-finals
where they produced another winning race leading them into the final. In the final, the girls managed to gather a strong lead early on which grew further throughout the race leading them to take the win of The Peabody Cup.
Henley Women’s Regatta was also a great opportunity for the club community of rowers, alumni, parents, and friends of the club to finally be able to attend and support at an event. After being strongly missed it was great to have all the spectators and support from the river bank as the crews came down the course and to see members of the HSOBC community throughout the weekend.