|
Event Information:
The Henley Royal Regatta is a rowing
event held every year on the River
Thames by the town of
Henley-on-Thames, England. The Royal
Regatta is sometimes referred to as
Henley Regatta, its original name
pre-dating Royal patronage. It
should not be confused with the
three other regattas rowed over
approximately the same course
(Henley Women's Regatta, Henley
Veterans Regatta and Henley Town and
Visitors Regatta), each of which is
an entirely separate event. The
regatta lasts for 5 days (Wednesday
to Sunday) over the first weekend in
July. Races are head-to-head knock
out competitions, raced over a
course of 1 mile, 550 yards (2,112
m). The regatta regularly attracts
international crews to race. The
most prestigious event at the
regatta is the Grand Challenge Cup
for Men's Eights, which has been
awarded since the regatta was first
staged.
As the regatta pre-dates any
national or international rowing
organisation, it has its own rules
and organisation, although it is
recognised by both British Rowing
(the governing body of rowing in
England and Wales) and FISA (the
International Federation of Rowing
Associations). The regatta is
organised by a self-electing body of
Stewards, who are largely former
rowers themselves. Pierre de
Coubertin modelled elements of the
organisation of the International
Olympic Committee on the Henley
Stewards. Each event in the regatta
takes the form of a knockout
competition, with each race
consisting of two crews racing side
by side up the Henley course. The
course is marked out by two lines of
booms (wooden bars which float on
the water, secured between vertical
poles), which are placed along the
river to form a straight course
2,112 metres long. The course is
wide enough to allow two crews to
race down with a few metres between
them. As such it is not uncommon for
inexperienced steersmen or coxswains
to crash into the booms, possibly
costing their crew the race.
When
the start and finish positions of
the Old Course had become
established, the distance between
them was found to be 1 mile 570 yds
(2131 metres). However, boats were
aligned by their sterns at the start
and judged by their bows at the
finish. This meant that the course
was slightly longer for single
sculls than for eights. The length
of an eight was assumed to be twenty
yards and as such the course came to
be described as ‘about 1 mile and
550 yards (2112 metres)’, which was
the distance covered by an eight.
The change of the international
distance to 2000 m and the addition
of a fifth day to the regatta in
1986 allowed the Committee of
Management to revisit the decision.
In 1993 the regatta introduced an
open Women’s Single Sculls event and
from 1993-6 this counted as a round
of the FISA World Cup. The first
winner was Maria Brandin of Sweden
and she subsequently won a further
four times. Fittingly, the
prizegiver in 1993 was Peter Coni.
In 1996, the Stewards purchased a
silver cup as a challenge trophy and
named it the Princess Royal
Challenge Cup; it was presented for
the first time in 1997.
Local
Weather:
|
