The Great Britain squad crews have all progressed to the finals of Henley Royal Regatta on Sunday, when they will have a chance to prove a few points before the final World Cup regatta of the season in Lucerne next week.
While the final of the Grand Challenge Cup, the oldest event at Henley, between the Britain eight and the Germany eight will be the marquee event, there will be some fascinating battles on finals day. Not least among them will be the final of the Double Sculls between Matt Wells and Marcus Bateman, representing Leander, and David Crawshay and Scott Brennan, the Olympic champions from Australia.
Wells and Bateman were again on record-breaking form in their semi-final win, adding new records to Fawley and the finish to the benchmark to the Barrier they had set in their quarter-final, but Crawshay and Brennan won their semi-final by a margin of “easily” and will be tough opponents.
Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge also had a verdict of “easily” given for their win over the Gkountoulas brothers from Greece in the Silver Goblets. They will now race Lorenzo Carbocini and Niccolo Monati, of Italy, in the final.
Alan Campbell will be seeking a third win in the Diamond Sculls final against Nicholas Hudson, of Australia, while the Britain men’s quad have a tough battle in the final of the Queen Mother Challenge Cup against the world champions from Croatia. In the Stewards, the Britain men’s four will face an American crew, who suprisingly put out the fancied Australians.
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The men’s eight, in the Grand, and the women’s, in the Remenham, both won, the men by one length from Australia and the women, who next race the United States international eight, by three lengths from Oxford Brookes.
Among the club and student competitions, Upper Yarra, from Australia, will face Star in the final of the Thames Challenge Cup, while the Princess Elizabeth has an intriguing final between Abingdon School, who equalled the course record, and the American St Andrew’s School, from Delaware, who came from behind to deny Eton College a fourth consecutive place in the final.