Crews Ready for Henley Regatta

If a national title isn’t enough to celebrate, throw in a trip to England.

The Harvard lightweight crew received funding to travel to Henley-on-Thames, England to row in the Henley Royal Regatta on the Thames River after winning the National Championship on Saturday. The first freshman heavyweight boat and a heavyweight pair have also received funding.

All of the events at Henley are staged on the full Henley course, which is 2112 meters. The traditional racing course on the Charles River is 2000 meters, so the distance should not be a source of anxiety, but the system of racing is significantly different from other regattas of the Crimson’s season so racing strategies may have to be altered.

Instead of opening the regatta with heats to determine placement in semi-finals, the repechage or the Grand Final, Henley is based upon head-to-head competition. All of the races are rowed between two boats and the winner of the race goes on to the next round. So with 32 entries in the Temple Challenge Cup, the winner of the event would win six races.

The Crimson heavyweight pair will race in a pair event, while both of Harvard’s eight-boats will be racing in the Temple Challenge Cup, which is an event for crews from universities, colleges and schools. There are rules that are applied on an individual basis to prohibit the top crews in the world, such as national crews, from rowing in this event.

National crews must row in the Grand Challenge Cup, the top event at Henley. Following the Grand Cup is the Ladies’ Challenge Plate, which, contrary to the title, is an event for club and university crews that are below the Grand Cup level.

Harvard has had success in the Ladies’ Challenge Plate in previous years, winning it in 1990 with a time of 6:35 and then again in 1998 with a time of 6:24.

The Princeton heavyweights are racing in the Ladies’ Plate this year,” said senior Noah Bloom. “The Harvard heavyweights [of 1998] were second in sprints, but then had a really good performance in the Harvard-Yale regatta, so they went [to Henley].”

The Tigers took the title this year at Eastern Sprints, leaving Harvard in second place by three seconds.

The Crimson also avoids its oldest rival in the Temple Cup this year. Yale is sending its lightweight boat to row at Henley, but regatta rules do not permit the Elis to row in the Temple Cup this year because they won the event last year. Yale will instead break its boat into fours to row in other events.

But Harvard will face other familiar faces.

“I’m really excited that some of our competitors from the season will be there,” Bloom said. “Dartmouth will be there and Navy is sending a boat of seniors.”

Along with boats from the United States, Harvard also has to contend with international competitors.

In 1999, Harvard raced its way into the final four boats of the Temple Cup, along with boats from Princeton, Cambridge, and the Imperial College of London ‘A’. The Crimson fell to the ‘A’ boat from the Imperial College of London, who in turn lost to Cambridge in the final.

Another potential threat is a boat from Oxford Brooks University. Oxford Brooks won the Temple Cup in both 1993 and 1995 and posted the cup record with a time of 6:14 in 1995.

The Crimson freshman boat (7-1) enters the competition with a near-flawless dual record and an Eastern title. The lightweight boat carries the national crown.

Harvard is ready to face international foes at the Henley Royal Regatta.

“This became an amazingly successful season for Harvard rowing,” Bloom said. “I was at Harvard-Yale and the Varsity heavyweights completely dominated. The JV heavyweights came back from a large deficit to win by a pretty wide margin, the freshman won Eastern Sprints and we won nationals. It’s really exciting.”