Henley Women’s Regatta (HWR) on June 16th to 18th attracted a record entry of 547 for the 35th edition of what is the premier rowing regatta for women in the UK.
Crews were required to take part in a time trial for each event over a course of around 1400 metres of the Henley reach on Friday to determine those selected to progress to side by side racing in the knock-out stages on Saturday and Sunday.
Rachel Wilson, Shannon Grealis, Lucy Beresford and Emily Chaytor of Durham ARC’s Senior Women were one of 40 entries in the time trial for the Lester Trophy for Club Coxless Fours on Friday morning, needing to be one of the 16 fastest in their event to progress further. Their time of 5.27.3 was the fastest in the event by any DARC crew in the last 10 years but the strength of opposition from around the UK meant they missed out on a qualifying place by 12 seconds.
The crew had gone from a Learn to Row course to Henley Women’s Regatta in 2 years, a fantastic achievement illustrating the strength of the L2R program.
Results of time trials are available here and results of all races can be found here. Winners of each event are listed here, including victory for Durham University Boat Club in the Championship Lightweight Double Sculls.
Photos from AllMarkOne are available here.
HWR is the first of the three major annual regattas on the Henley reach, Henley Royal Regatta running from June 27th to July 2nd and Henley Masters Regatta taking place on July 7th and 8th. DARC has entries in all three.
The number of female rowers entering the 2023 Henley Royal Regatta is twice that of 2019, reflecting the growing strength and popularity of both the sport and the three new women’s events created in 2021