Nine New Zealand crews have been racing at the Henley Royal Regatta in England and, as I mentioned last week, this is a regatta with a difference.
Firstly, the crews race over a distance of 1 mile and 550 yards (2112m) on the River Thames. Secondly, only two crews take part in each race on a knock-out basis with no second chance in a repechage system.
Under the rules of the regatta New Zealand crews race under the colours of the Waiariki Rowing Club. In recent times we have been used to our crews coming away with a fistful of medals. At Henley this year only four of the crews made it into the final in their event.
Hamish Bond and Eric Murray continued their winning way in the men's coxless pairs from a South African combination. The winning margin was given as "easily" and the time of 6m 56s equalled the course record for the event.
This was the third time the pair have won the Silver Goblets and Nickall's Challenge Cup that go to the winner of this event. I am not sure at what stage the margin is given as "easily" but one of the other New Zealand crews were beaten by five lengths so it would appear that "easily" must be more than that.
Michael Arms and Robbie Manson won the double sculls Challenge Cup by a margin of two lengths in a time of 6m 48s which broke the record for this event.
The men's quadruple sculls crew came second in their final in the race for the Queen Mother Challenge Cup, being beaten by an English combination by 4 lengths. Emma Twigg finished second behind Czech rower Mirka Knapkova in the women's singles with the margin being given as easily.
The men's heavyweight and lightweight fours raced in the Stewards' Challenge Cup. Neither crew made it into the final. The heavyweight crew were beaten by a South African crew who were runners-up in the final by half a length and the lightweights were narrowly beaten by an English combination. The English crew went on to beat the South Africans in the final.
There were three New Zealanders racing in the men's singles for the Diamond Sculls. The event was finally won by Alexsandr Aleksandrov from Azerbaijan. On his way to the final he beat Mahe Drysdale by 4 lengths and Duncan Grant by two lengths. Our third sculler, Joseph Sullivan, was beaten by Slovenian sculler Luka Spik by five lengths. So it was not a great regatta for our scullers.
In the early 1990s I spent three years teaching at St Edward's School in Oxford. They had a good rowing set-up there and I was pleased to see their eight came second by half a length in the Princess Elizabeth Cup, which was won by Abingdon School in a race record time.
The race is for schools and is the equivalent to our Maadi Cup event.
There were 32 schools racing in this event so the two crews in the final had to race five times in the period from Wednesday through to Sunday.
The next event on the international programme is the third and final round of the World Cup competition. It will be held at Lucerne and racing will start on Friday with the finals being held on Sunday.
Also on Sunday the third round of the Winter Long Distance series will be held on the Wanganui River. Crews will race over a distance of 7km.
Crews will start from the 2000m finish on the Aramoho course and race upstream to turn opposite Quick Ave and race back downstream to finish off opposite the National Library Building.
Racing is due to start at 9am.