
Weekend Wrap: Champions Crowned at 139th Henley
After six days of exciting rowing competition, the 139th Royal Canadian Henley Regatta wrapped up on Sunday on Martindale Waterways in St. Catharines.
Over the course of the 2023 rowing season a trend of increased entries at regattas has been evident as the number of participants have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Henley was no different as the 1910 entries and 120 clubs competing represented an increase of over 400 and 20 respectively from 2022. A total of 25 Ontario clubs competed at the event, which featured clubs from across North America as well as international entries from India, Colombia, El Salvador, Argentina, and the United Kingdom.
The competition began on Tuesday, Aug. 8 with heats and semi-finals for the first two days of competition. The first finals took place on Thursday afternoon and ran throughout the rest of the week until Sunday afternoon. Competing on their home course, the St. Catharines Rowing Club were the biggest winners as they earned the most gold medals of any club with ten. They outpaced the Conshohocken Rowing Centre (Conshohocken, PA) and RowBuffalo who tied for the second most gold medals of the event with six apiece. The Cambridge Boat Club of Massachusetts were next on the gold medal list with five.
Several other Ontario clubs had strong regattas as the Finals throughout the last four days of competition were littered with Ontario rowers. Ontario clubs winning gold medals at the event included the Peterborough Rowing Club (3), Kingston Rowing Club (3), South Niagara Rowing Club (2), Ottawa Rowing Club (2), Western University (1), Sudbury Rowing Club (1), and Leander Boat Club (1).
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 Waterways every year it has run over the last 120 years.
For full results from the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, visit RCHR.
For the full regatta schedule in Ontario, visit the Row Ontario website.