Henley Women's Regatta (HWR or Women's Henley) is a rowing regatta held on the River Thames near to Henley-on-Thames, England. It takes place over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday in mid to late June. [1] [2] [3]
Contents
The regatta is held using a shortened version of the boomed course used for the Henley Royal Regatta, with the shorter course due to Environment Agency safety restrictions and the short intervals between races. The course is 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) long, in comparison with the Royal Regatta's 2,112 metres (6,929 ft). With a start upstream of Temple Island and a finish in front of the Remenham Club, no part of the event actually takes place within Henley, and the course is divided between the counties of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Most of the facilities, including the Friends of Henley Women's Regatta, or Chairman's, enclosure, are in the Berkshire civil parish of Remenham. [4] [5] [6]
The first regatta was held in 1988, as a response to the absence of women's events at Henley Royal Regatta at the time. Chris Aistrop and Rosemary Mayglothling were jointly responsible for setting up the regatta and Aistrop was the first chairman. [7]
While Henley Royal Regatta now offers eight women's events, Women's Henley has continued to build and expand. Henley Women's Regatta now lasts three full days, and includes time trials for over-subscribed events. Since 2004 the regatta has offered Intermediate, Senior and Elite categories instead of college, Club and Open. Junior categories are also offered. In 2011 the regatta also began to offer Adaptive events. On 1 December 2017 HWR announced that the Competition Structure events would be altered for the 2018 regatta to recategorise the events into Championship, Aspirational, Development, Junior, Junior under 16, and Para Rowing.[ citation needed ]
The current regatta chair is Naomi Ashcroft and the joint patrons of the regatta are Sir Steven Redgrave and Lady Redgrave. [3] [8]
