Three-Peats and First-Time Winners at Henley Women’s Regatta 2024
The best-attended Henley Women’s Regatta in history came to an end on Sunday 24 June
with fiercely contested finals that saw some clubs make it three wins in a row, and others
take their first trophies.
Oxford Brookes University and Thames Rowing Club won the Colgan Foundation Cup for
aspirational academic eights and the Copas Cup for aspirational club eights, respectively,
each for a third year running. Leander Club added the Avril Vellacott Cup for championship
coxless fours, also for a third year in a row.
Oxford Brookes also retained the Ron Needs Cup for championship eights.
Meanwhile Wycliffe College’s outstanding crew made it back-to-back victories in the Bea Langridge Trophy for junior quadruple sculls, with two of the crew – Violet Holsbrow-
Brooksbank and Lily Martin – racing both in 2023 and 2024.
Scottish crews showed their quality in the coxed fours events. Edinburgh University won the Frank V Harry Cup for development coxed fours once more, after lifting the trophy in 2023.
Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association won the Groton School Challenge Cup for junior
coxed fours, for the second time in three years. Glasgow Academy won the event in 2021
and 2023, meaning there has been a Scottish stranglehold on this cup for four years now.
The Chairman’s Trophy for aspirational quadruple sculls stayed in the Netherlands, with
ARSR Skadi from Rotterdam defeating 2023 champions USR Triton by just over 1.5
seconds. Skadi delighted prizegiving attendees with a rousing rendition of their club song,
before hurrying off to catch a plane home.
Both championship single sculls races – the George Innes Cup and the Godfrey Rowsports
Trophy – also went overseas. Sophie Egnot-Johnson of Waikato Rowing Club, New
Zealand, won the openweight event while Riona McCormick of Schuylkill Navy High
Performance Collaborative won the lightweight trophy.
2024 also saw the return of the Grosvenor Cup for PR3 single sculls, won by Samantha
Gough of St Andrew Boat Club in a record time of 6:52. This was the only event with a new
record during the weekend, thanks to a stiff headwind on Friday and Saturday and calmer
conditions on Sunday.
The regatta was not all about winning. A number of clubs entered for the first time.
Brentford Boat Club qualified for the side-by-side racing in the West End Amateur Rowing
Association Trophy for junior 16 coxed fours, while Streatham & Clapham High School
qualified two boats, and reached the quarter-finals of the Rayner Cup for junior double
sculls. Windermere Boat Club was another first-time entrant.
The trophies were presented by former HWR chairman and Olympic silver medallist Miriam
Luke, who told competitors that the regatta’s expansion to more than 2,300 athletes this year was a reflection of their hard work as well as the growth of women’s rowing.
She was joined by representatives of sponsors including the Copas family and the Colgan
Foundation, as well as two-time Olympic and eight-time world champion Eric Murray, who
presented Dart Totnes Amateur Rowing Club with the Haslam Trophy for championship
lightweight double sculls.
HWR chairman Naomi Ashcroft said: “HWR’s objective is to showcase the best of women’s
rowing and I believe we certainly achieved that this weekend, demonstrated not only across the hotly contested races for each trophy but also by an increasing number of clubs and schools entering and succeeding at the regatta. It is testimony to all the hard work of our huge number of volunteers and supporters.”
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