ROWING HENLEY:SEVEN IRISH crews had confident wins at Henley Royal Regatta yesterday. The day ended with a stirring win late last evening for UCD in the Prince Albert for student coxed fours – they beat Goldie Boat Club by three-quarters of a length after coming from behind.
The Dublin college will compete alongside Galway and Carlow, who progressed in the Thames Cup for club eights, and Muckross and Commercial in the Wyfold for club fours.
Leading the bunch yesterday was Queen’s University, with both their A and B crews winning plaudits on their way to clear wins over University of London and Nottingham University respectively in the Temple Cup for student eights.
Should they win on the double today, the crews will face each other in tomorrow’s semi-finals.
Queen’s coach Mark Fangen-Hall was playing down the chances of this scenario last night. Today his A crew faces Brock University of Canada and the B crew perennial Dutch contenders Nereus. Both are seeded crews.
“I’m very happy with the results, but to be fair we weren’t really tested today and there are big crews coming our way tomorrow. Nereus for our B crew is a big, big challenge and Brock are a good, solid North American crew. I think the regatta starts tomorrow.”
The regatta is over, however, for two Irish crews. A much heavier Molesey crew saw off St Michael’s in the Thames Cup and the Muckross/Galway Rowing Club composite fell to an Argentinian crew in the Visitors’ Cup.
The Visitors’ is a step up from club level, and even the presence of double Olympian Paul Griffin, who stroked the Ireland lightweight four to sixth in Athens in 2006 and 10th in Beijing 2010, could not decide the issue in favour of the Irish.
The South Americans had major steering difficulties early on, and Griffin, James Mangan, John Forde and Marc Stephens led at the Barrier, about a quarter of the way into the race. Their opponents were not done, and by half-way they had drawn level.
They pushed into the lead over the closing stages and the floridly-named Club San Fernando and Club de Regatas la Plata took the verdict by two lengths.
Coleraine man Peter Chambers showed such fighting spirit that he looked like he might pull off a shock win over Brendan Crean – four stones heavier than him – in the Diamond Sculls, but Crean pulled away to win.
NUIG are set to begin their campaign today in the Ladies’ Plate, an intermediate event. Dubliner Martin Walsh will stroke the Oxford Brookes/Oxford University crew in the same event.
The Belfast Rowing Club/City of Derry/Carrick-on-Shannon crew which will compete in the Princess Grace for women’s quadruple is the only Irish-based crew competing at the very top level, an open event.
ROYAL REGATTA– Day Two (Irish interest) Diamond Sculls (Single Scull, Open): B Crean (Agecroft RC) bt P Chambers (Oxford Brookes University) 1½ l, 8:37 Visitors' Cup (Fours; Intermediate): Club San Fernando and Club de Regatas la Plata, Argentina bt Galway RC and Muckross 2l, 7:36 Thames Cup (Eights; club): Galway RC bt Thames Tradesmen RC 3½ l, 7:11; Molesey BC A bt St Michael's 2¼ l, 7:03; Carlow bt Star Club, Bedford 1l, 7:15 Wyfold (Fours; club): Commercial bt Vesta RC 1l, 7:33; Muckross RC bt Molesey BC ¾ l, 7:35 Temple (Eights; Student): Queen's University A bt University of London A 2¼ l, 7:04; Queen's University B bt Nottingham University 3¼ l, 7:05 Prince Albert (Fours, coxed; Student): UCD bt Goldie BC ¾ l, 7:19.
