It was a sunny weekend on the Thames as two YCRC crews travelled to race at Henley Women’s Regatta, one of the higlights of the rowing calendar. After a winter and spring of hard work, an ‘aspirational’ quadruple scull of Sophy Nicholson, Helen Waller, Helen Sneath and Louise Hawkyard, and a junior double scull of Lucy Edmunds and Katarina Bonner travelled south to take on crews from the UK and abroad.

Due to the number of entries, both crews had to first battle through a time trial qualification to reach the knock out rounds of their events. The senior crew were drawn against Imperial College in the first round, a club with a strong rowing pedigree and despite giving it their all, were knocked out by 2 lengths.

Having also cruised through the time trials, the double scull comfortably beat Canford School in the first round, coming up against Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School in the quarter final on Sunday. By halfway, Lucy and Katarina were a good length and a half down, but a brilliant push over the last 500m saw them grab the victory by three feet. In the semi-final, they faced a much heavier City of Oxford crew, and despite being down by two lengths at half way, put on another fantastic sprint to close down the Oxford crew in the last 50m, missing out on the final by only 1/3 of a length.

Both crews did themselves, their coaches, and YCRC proud through their hard work and training all year leading up to the event, and their wholehearted performances on the national stage. Well done!