Weekend Preview: Henley Takes Centre Stage
The 138th Royal Canadian Henley Regatta kicked off on Tuesday, Aug. 2 and will continue until Sunday, Aug. 7 as St. Catharines will welcome rowing clubs from throughout North America.
Henley will take place from its home on Martindale Pond with a total of 97 clubs will taking part in the annual event, including clubs from BC, Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia. There will be 23 clubs from Ontario taking part, with the hometown St. Catharines Rowing Club coming in with the most entries of all Canadian clubs with 75, followed by the Ottawa Rowing Club with 73 and the Argonaut Rowing Club with 62. The United States will be well represented at the event with 61 clubs in attendance from 21 different states, while Fedemex Rowing will send a team with 13 entries. Community Rowing from Brighton, MA will have the most entries of all clubs with 76, still just a fraction of the over 1500 entries that will take part in the event.
The first two days of competition have seen heats and semi-finals take place for Thursday and Friday’s finals. Thursday’s action will see the first 19 finals of the week run, followed by 17 on Friday, 31 on Saturday, and 35 on Sunday. The men’s and women’s championship eights will be the final races run during the week-long event.
The first Royal Canadian Henley Regatta was hosted in 1880 as the first championship for the newly formed Canadian Association of Amateur Oarsmen. Over the next two decades, it changed venues often until St. Catharines became the host in 1903. Henley has been hosted on Martindale Pond every year it has run since then.
For more information on the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, visit RegattaCentral
For the full regatta schedule in Ontario, visit the Row Ontario website.
