Warwick Men’s Rowing pre-qualify for Henley

As exams start to end and term three comes to a close, drinks start flowing and thoughts turn to festivals, summer sun and returning to the comforts of home. However, for Warwick Rowing, this is on hold. They have one more hurdle to overcome. It’s the big one. The one the whole summer season has been building for: the Henley Royal Regatta – the pinnacle of our summer season.

Henley is set on one of the best known stretches of water in the world and each summer plays host to competitive racing between the world’s best international crews. Set in the historic town in South Oxfordshire, crews battle it out in a one-on-one knockout system, where only victory is enough to take you through to the next round. Henley Royal Regatta is held over five days, Wednesday 29th June – Sunday 3rd July, with each day representing a new round.

The banks on both sides of the river are packed every day of the regatta, bringing the rowing world the closest it will ever come to an arena. If the rowing isn’t for you, then the socialising certainly is. Imagine Notorious Monday’s but replacing the vodbulls for Pimm’s and your Vialli’s kebab for a riverside picnic, and you are on your way. All are seen fully embracing the opportunity to indulge in a five-day long quintessentially English affair by making the most of the opportunity for the gents to don their rowing blazers and the ladies to show off their new summer dresses.

However, for the men of Warwick rowing, the Pimm’s has to wait. To compete at Henley, rowers don’t prepare in halves. To be alongside the best, you have to train like the best. For the club’s senior men and women, this means a gruelling schedule of land training including rowing machine, weights and running as well as kilometre after kilometre of water time. Henley is the one regatta that university crews yearn to win above all others. For every stroke taken down the 2168 metres of the Henley course, 7 hours of preparation has been done.

Warwick Men’s rowing has a varied and exciting history at Henley Royal Regatta, where they have mostly competed in the Temple Challenge cup, in which only eight-man boats can compete. However, the Men’s 1st VIII had their most successful campaign competing for the Prince Albert Cup in 2002, a race with four-man boats plus a coxswain.

Current British Olympian, Tom Solesbury, led the boat to the third round (Friday) before being knocked out by Harvard University, the eventual winners of the event, in a closely fought contest. Since 2002, Warwick have attempted to qualify for the Temple Challenge Cup seven times, and have been successful qualifiers in five of those attempts.

In 2009, Warwick posted the 2nd fastest qualification time with current University of Warwick Boat Club’s President Ivan Indilo, Senior Men’s Captain Jamie Palmer and Ben Ellison, who was part of Oxford’s winning boat in the 2011 Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat Race.

This year promises to be another successful year for Warwick Rowing. For the first time in university history, the Warwick Men’s 1st VIII has pre-qualified. The calibre of pre-qualifying crews is exceptionally high, including universities such as Nereus, Durham A, Florida, Harvard, IC, Newcastle A, Brookes A, Queens, Reading, R.S.V.O.U Holland, Trinity Dublin, Bristol A, Berkeley, Groningen, UL, Virginia and Yale. The Warwick Men’s 1st VIII at the main tournament will consist of: Oliver James, Dan Garside, James Cooper, Ivan Indilo, Damir Rasidovic, Jure Jerić, Jamie Palmer, Alex Owen and Pete Holloway. The eight have been coached by ex-Warwick student and previous Men’s Captain James Webb. The Men’s 2nd VIII will also be attempting qualification on the 24th June and have posted some promising results in the pre-Henley events, resulting in a confident crew heading into the qualifiers.

The women competed last week at the Women’s counterpart of Henley Regatta, impressively reaching the quarter finals. Women’s rowing has come on leaps and bounds since it began at Warwick, with the dedicated work of their current coach, Ross Martin. Sadly, after nine years’ service to the club, the women’s squad say goodbye to Ross as he starts a new adventure with a job in Australia.

However, with the appointment of Rob Fellowes, another ex-Warwick student, as Ross’s successor, they look set to progress even further on what has already been a great year for women’s rowing at Warwick. This year’s Henley Women’s Regatta has proven to be to be a really good opportunity for the female rowers at the club to prove their worth amongst the best oarswomen in the country. We wish luck to the men, who also have high expectations, hoping to match the achievements of the women’s team in reaching the quarter final.

Results of Warwick’s performance will be updated through the Warwick Rowing Twitter feed @warwickrowing and their Facebook group ‘Warwick Rowing’. Further information about the club can be found at www.uwbc.org.