Henley pomp to Lucerne calm

The 2112m distance was rowed in five minutes, 54 seconds by Great Britain’s men’s eight to set a new course record by three seconds. In the one-on-one racing set-up, Great Britain beat the University of Washington (USA) in the final. The course record was also broken in the men’s double sculls when New Zealand’s Robert Manson and Michael Arms covered the course in six minutes, 48 seconds. Manson and Arms raced the final against Great Britain’s Bill Lucas and Matthew Langridge, winning by two lengths.

Just missing out on a course record was Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of New Zealand. Murray and Bond raced in the men’s pair and equalled the previous record set in 1995 by Great Britain’s Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.

Azerbaijan’s Aleksandar Aleksandrov prevailed in the men’s single sculls, the Diamond Challenge Sculls. To get to the final Aleksandrov beat Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand and Slovenia’s top current sculler and Olympic medallist Luka Spik. Then Aleksandrov met Great Britain’s Alan Campbell in the final to beat him by two lengths.

In the women’s single sculls, the Princess Royal Challenge Cup, Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic easily won over New Zealand’s Emma Twigg. Both Knapkova and Twigg beat British entries in the previous rounds – Twigg against Victoria Thornley and Knapkova against Debbie Flood.

This year’s weather brought out the crowds to Henley with record numbers being recorded on day one. Temperatures were above average for the final three days with the strict Henley rules of men wearing blazers being waived because of the heat.  

A large number of these athletes then moved on to Lucerne, Switzerland to race in the Samsung World Rowing Cup III which begins on Friday 12 July 2013. For these rowers Henley acted as a great prelude to the final event in the World Cup series.

The Lucerne regatta course is known for its natural surroundings, good racing weather and fair conditions. The weather for this three day regatta is set to be calm with temperatures rising to about 26 degrees Celsius each day.