Cantabs enjoyed the most successful regatta of all Cambridge town clubs, sending 7 crews to the regatta, with 3 qualifying in the most competitive HWR to date, with many of the remainder narrowly missing out on qualification spots.
If you’d like to take your rowing further and want to join the most successful women’s club rowing programme in Cambridge, please contact womens.captain@cantabsrowing.org.uk for more information.
The Club 4- raced a great time trial, coming off the water proud of their best row yet to qualify for the side-by-side racing. In the first round they drew a crew from Worcester who they had a confident race again, winning by 1.5L. The quarter final saw them draw eventual finalists from Upper Thames. Cantabs raced well, making Upper Thames have to fight the whole way down the course, unfortunately coming up short but proud of a great row.
After good performances at Wallingford and Met Regattas, Laura D’Urso and Freya Sutcliffe raced their time trial well to qualify for the Championship 2-. In the first round they drew Georgetown University, USA, who they were separated by only 0.5s in the time trial. As could have been predicted, it was a phenomenally close race which saw no more than half a length separate the crews at any point. Unfortunately the Cantabs crew fell short, but were proud of such a great race.
The Club 8+ raced hard in an extremely competitive field to qualify for one of the 16 regatta spots. They drew Thames Rowing Club in the first round, aware that Thames had the upper hand in the time trial. With nothing to lose, Cantabs sprinted hard from the start, enjoying their first taste of Henley Women’s Regatta for many of the crew.
This crew will now turn their attention to the Henley Royal Regatta qualifying races, where they will contest for a place in the Wargrave Challenge Cup. Another crew from the squad, comprising athletes from the 4-, 2- and some who didn’t race at HWR, have prequalified for the event and will race on the Wednesday.
The Aspirational 2x saw Sarah Yorke and Sam Love race well after a less-than-easy road to Henley which had been blighted by injury and illness. A great row from them was unfortunately not quite enough in such a competitive field, and saw them finish as the 2nd fastest non-qualifiers but proud of a great result.
The time trial saw Charlotte Anderson make further improvements in the single since her return to the boat only a few months ago, but she was unfortunately unable to progress to the final 16 in the Aspirational 1x.
The Development 4+ was by far the most competitive of all of the events at Henley Women’s Regatta, with 55 crews vying for one of 16 qualification spots. The Cantabs A crew in this event put in their best race of the season, and were devastated to come up short by just 1 second, finishing as the 2nd fastest non-qualifiers. They were the 5th fastest club crew in the event, suggesting that splitting this event in future into club and academic may be fairer for those taking part. The B crew also raced well, in their first ever HWR, with a time they were proud of.
The biggest near-miss of the regatta was the Junior 8+ crew, all but one of whom have another year of junior rowing yet to go, who were the fastest non-qualifiers in their event. Whilst disappointing, we’re looking forward to seeing what another year of rowing will do to the speed of this promising crew!
