Julho 7, 2009
Mahe Drysdale: Henley Royal Regatta
We have just started into our fourth week of our European ‘holiday’ and just arrived in our fourth different country being Switzerland for the World Cup starting in Lucerne on Friday.
The last four days have been spent at the Henley Royal Regatta in the UK and it has been great to go back to Henley for the third time. This time I was able to share it with the other New Zealand rowers and team officials, most of which have never been to the regatta. For me it was all fairly familiar, things don’t change too much year to year at Henley and haven’t done much over the last 160 odd years, but that is part of the charm. For those that hadn’t been before they were quite blown away by the experience and really enjoyed their time at the regatta.
For those that don’t know about Henley, it is unique. It is a course laid out on the river, you row into the current and it is marked out by wooden poles with wooden booms(logs) between the poles, this doubles as a place for boats to moor up to, as well as keep down the wash for the rowers from the numerous pleasure boats on the river, the course is 2112M long into the current meaning it is a longer than a usual 2K race, (its all measured in Miles, yards and feet) and the distance is what it is, as that is the longest straight course they could fit on the river. It is a one on one knock out competition like tennis where you loose one race and your knocked out. You win or loose by verdict of distance rather than seconds and it is un-gentlemanly to beat your competition by a verdict of easily (5Lengths or more). This means that there are only 38 crews left on Sunday to compete in the 19 different events. Henley is one of the summer social occasions in the UK and is just as famous for its social activities and Pimms as it is for rowing. It is the only place in the world I have raced the whole way with crowds lining both sides of the river, because of the wooden booms it also means the crowds are closer than usual as they can be within about 1m of the end of your oar about 4 Metres from your body, which can be intimidating at times.
The New Zealand contingent had our full team entered at Henley, we had a total of 10 crews entered in 6 different events (our main competition in all but Emma Twiggs event was the British so it was always going to be good racing at what they consider home), there are no lightweight events and only a few woman’s events, which meant our lightweights had to enter the heavyweight events and our woman’s double and pair had to team up in the quad. As I left you in my last email 9 of the 10 crews made it through to semi final day on Saturday.
The woman’s ‘B’ quad (pair and double) were knocked out by the British in the semi, while our ‘A’ quad beat the Chinese to set up the first NZ v British final. Our lightweight four had a great row to beat the Italians and face a final showdown against the British heavyweight four. Emma Twigg won through easily in her semi in the single but unfortunately Juliette Haigh wasn’t able to make it an all kiwi final after she hit a buoy at the start and fought back to within a length of a US sculler. The men’s double met our own lightweight double and ended up dominating the race to set up the third NZ British final. The men’s pair faced the Brits in the semi, this was tipped as the race of the day and possibly what the final should have been. The Brits have been tipped as the next Pinsent and Redgrave (4 and 5 Olympic gold medals respectively) but if they are, our boys are supermen as they pushed straight to the lead and won comfortably to take the NZ v Brit tally 1-0 before the finals started. I raced Tim Maeyens and was expecting a pretty tight race, I quickly got into the lead and never looked back cruising over the second half of the course rating 24 and winning comfortably to remain fresh for the final. The second semi of the single was a great race with Olaf Tufte taking on Alan Campbell. I enjoyed it immensely as I sat on the bank watching them slug it out all the way down the course. Olaf took an early lead and led till about the last 500M, Alan fought all the way and as Olaf started to fade Alan came on strong to row through to set up the fourth NZ British final. All in all a great day qualifying for finals in all the events we entered.
As I have said Henley is unique and certainly is a true test of watermanship, you have to read the river, deal with wash and obstacles and anything else it throws at you. Two years ago I seemed to get the rough deal, I had the tougher semi against Hacker and then got the unfavored side of the river as there was a strong current that added with the fact that Alan loves Henley and pulled out a great race meant I lost. This year I was rowing well, the course was fair with very little current (and I drew the favoured side, if there was one), plus the draw went my way and I got to the final without having to extend myself in any race. Alan on the other hand had been weakened by Olaf which to be honest I enjoyed greatly, as all the odds were finally in my favour. Alan was certainly not to be written off as this was the event he was targeting and sacrificed winning the world cup by choosing to race Henley and not racing in Lucerne later this week.
Sunday turned on an overcast day with a very stiff head wind meaning it was going to be a very long race, something I was pretty happy about as it just stacked another odd in my favour. The day started with a bang with Emma Twigg winning the Princess Royal Challenge Cup Comfortably. The Brits then evened the score with a win in the woman’s quad, our girls put up a good fight leading till half way but couldn’t hold on. The Brits then took a 2-1 lead when they won the Stewards Challenge Cup (men’s four) against the lightweights, into the strong head wind it was always going to be a tough one for the lighties. Next up the men’s pair raced the South Africans and were never threatened winning by a verdict of easily. I was next, well the warm up was eventful as I hit a rowing pleasure craft on the way up, I tried to avoid it at the last minute but managed to hit one of the guys in the head with my oar and watched as they nearly fell in the water.
Alan is known for his fast starts while I am stronger in the second half of the race, being a one on one battle means the guy in front usually has the advantage and to my surprise I got a slight lead in the first few hundred metres. I settled into my rhythm and without doing anything special soon opened up a lengths lead. I was always confident that once I was in front I wouldn’t loose, but was expecting Alan to be in front early on and have to work to get through him. As the race went my lead continued to grow until I was in a commanding position by half way about 3 lengths in front. I was rating about 30 and while the head wind was strong I felt comfortable and ready to respond if I needed to. Alan never threw in the towel and continued to push all the way to the line, Being in front I was able to adsorb his moves and move back to hold my margin, in the last 500M he probably closed the gap by about a length but I never felt threatened and was very happy to come away with the win. It ended up being a lot easier than I had expected it was going to be as I was prepared for a fight all the way to the line. This made it 2-2 with the Brit Kiwi battle and it was up to the men’s double to row the decider. They flew out of the blocks to lead all the way, the Brits fought all the way and in the end it was a tight race finishing with a lengths win to the kiwis and a domination in the small boats. There are only 4 events at Henley where there is less than 4 people in a boat and we won all four. It was also nice to get the better of the Brits on home soil, beating them head to head 3-2.
After the race it was a quick warm down before getting ready for the prize giving. The trophies at Henley are very impressive and valuable, so you only get to be in possession of them for a limited time while a Steward makes sure you don’t do anything wrong. Between us, Emma won the Princess Royal Challenge Cup (she keeps a lovely silver broach), I won the Diamond Challenge Sculls (a wooden box with silver sculls crossed with a wreath of green enamel, set with rubies and gold and of course a large diamond), I also get the pineapple cup which I get to keep. The men’s pair won the Silver goblets & Nickalls Challenge Cup again they get to keep the Silver goblets while the double won the Double Sculls Challenge Cup and get medals to keep. After the photos and a catch up with supporters it was time to squeeze in a few Pimms before heading off for dinner.
Overall was a very successful regatta and good to still be performing well. Personally I am very pleased with my rowing and looking forward to the Lucerne world cup this weekend. We are already in Switzerland and settled in and training at Lucerne, I will be back with more updates once we have raced here. Racing starts Friday.
Until then take care
Mahe
