STAFF REPORTS
PHOTO BY PETER SPURRIER
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The draw is out.
Over 400 crews will compete across six days at this year’s Henley Royal Regatta. It is the 183rd iteration of the event. The draw includes competitors from 16 nations including 12 Olympic gold medalists from the Tokyo Olympic Games.
“Across the board, the depth in quality is immense,” Sir Steve Redgrave, Chairman of the Committee of Management for the regatta, said. “We’ve got some old and new home favorites and a huge top quality international entry, which always adds tension to the Draw.
“You don’t know who is going to win, but what you do know is that you’re not going to travel all the way around the world unless you think you’re going to be reasonably quick – but we’re not sure what reasonably quick means yet.”
The draw comes after a day of qualifying races on June 24 which had over 380 crews compete in a time-trial over the 2,112-meter course for just 88 places. According to the regatta, it was the most competitive qualifier in Henley history.
“The level of the competition in the qualifiers emphasized the standard required to make it into the Regatta,” Sir Steve Redgrave said. “Big names and past performances do not guarantee entry to the Regatta.
“Traditionally we have ‘selected’ certain crews in the Draw for a number of the events. The purpose of this is to achieve the fairest and most satisfactory racing program. Crews may be ‘selected’ because we believe them to be the fastest in their event, or because we wish to keep apart overseas crews from the same Club or Country or for other similar reasons.”
The full draw can be viewed here.
