Henley Women's Regatta 2025 Race Report

Throwing it back to Henley Women's Regatta back in June...

We had two crews entered into the Aspirational 4x category...

A Cassidy, E Crookes, K Crowther and J Symmonds had a great run down the course in the time trial, missing out on qualifying by just three seconds. This is an incredible achievement considering 3/4 of the crew only started rowing in October! After having just two weeks of training together before racing, the crew gelled beautifully and they put down one hell of a shift in Henley.

L Brooks of UOLBC raced in a composite crew with 3 fantastic athletes who all train on the GB Performance Development Academy. The PDA composite crew had a strong fortnight of training with Matt Mole, firstly up in Scotland, being hosted by Scottish rowing, and then down in Leeds. As it was composed of four incredibly strong individual athletes, they worked on building their synchronicity and rowing as one boat, bringing their watts together and maximising flawless bladework. The girls quickly found their rhythm and racked up the mileage as a crew in the build up to the weekend. Come Friday morning, the girls were ready to attack the time trial and that they did, coming out of it with the fastest time and sailing through to the first round of quarter finals in the afternoon. Here they were seeded against Lea RC. Despite being behind at the 200m mark, the crew pushed through their opposition to win with a 14 second lead. After a long wait on Saturday, the girls were well rested and ready to take on Birmingham University, where they easily took the win once more, achieving the fastest time of their entire division - 5:22.0. Sunday, and the final is within reach. With fire in their belly (and their smart attire optimistically in the car) the crew took down Thames RC in the semi-final, seeing them through to one last showdown against Clydesdale ARC. With a massive 11 second lead, the PDA composite crossed the finish line and won The Chairman’s Trophy for Aspirational 4x. 

Congratulations ladies. This is a testament of your hard work, hunger for glory and passion for the sport. It couldn’t have been done without the guidance, encouragement and cool-headed reassurance of Matt and Perry from Scottish Rowing. 

Louise, we are so proud of you at UOLBC. We know this will be the first of many massive wins on the international stage. This is surely another club record to be added to the board, or the Big Lou shrine as it should be called. Congratulations once again girls you are unstoppable!!!