Overseas rowers flock to UK for Henley Women’s Regatta 2024
Hundreds of rowers from around the world are converging on Henley-on-Thames this week to race against the best of the UK as Henley Women’s Regatta 2024 gets underway
A total of 38 clubs from Australia, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the USA have entered crews at Henley Women’s Regatta (HWR) this year, including 18 American clubs, schools and universities, and 11 from the Netherlands. Almost 300 athletes are travelling from overseas to compete in the regatta. They will meet the cream of British female rowers, competing for clubs from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Oxford Brookes University BC has the largest entry, with 50 athletes in eight crews. The club will be looking to retain the two trophies it won in 2023, the Ron Needs Cup for Championship Eights and the Colgan Foundation Cup for Aspirational Academic Eights. Henley locals Leander Club have 48 athletes racing across 13 crews, while Thames RC will boat 47 rowers in 12 crews.
A number of entrants have represented their countries previously. Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Champion and HWR ambassador Ellen Buttrick is part of the Marlow RC crew in the Ron Needs Cup. 2023 World Rowing Under 23 Championships silver medallist Vwairé Obukohwo, who has won the W Peer Cup for Championship Double Sculls for the last two years, will come straight from racing at World Rowing Cup III last weekend to compete at HWR in a Nottingham RC/Trentham BC/Twickenham RC composite in the Borne Cup for Championship Quadruple Sculls. Indeed the majority of the ‘Project LA’ women’s squad who competed at World Rowing Cup III are also racing at HWR, demonstrating how the regatta continues to attract the best of British talent.
USA entrants at HWR this year include Solveig Imsdahl and Elaine Tierney, who raced in the Lightweight women’s pair at the 2022 and 2023 World Rowing Championships and are competing here in the Redgrave Challenge Vase for Championship Pairs. Meanwhile Saudi Arabian sculler Haya Almamy will represent for Walton RC in the George Innes Cup for Championship Single Sculls. Last year Almamy became the first Saudi Arabian female rower to race at the Asian Games.
Racing begins at 10:00 BST on Friday, 21 June with the time trial for the Copas Cup for Aspirational Club Eights.
