GW Men's Rowing Henley Practice Report
6/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Rowing
The 10 student-athletes and three coaches that make up GW's travel party for the upcoming Henley Royal Regatta wrapped a successful week of training on the Androscoggin River in Maine. The Colonials were based out of the Bates College boathouse and practiced twice a day for the last five days.
GW departed the United States for an overnight trip to London on Sunday afternoon. Earlier in the weekend the Royal Henley Regatta announced its list of crews required to qualify. GW's second four will compete in time trials for the Visitors Challenge Cup. A total of 10 crews will compete in qualifying with the four fastest times advancing. Qualifying races will run on Friday, June 24.
Head Coach Mark Davis checked in with GWsports.com to provide a practice report on how things progressed throughout the week.
"We just spent a week training on the Androscoggin River in Greene, Maine. It is an amazing stretch of river where Bates College rows. We had miles and miles of river to ourselves, a complete change from the busy Potomac.
One of the nice parts about this trip is that we are moving out of the eight, which we primarily row all year, and into pairs and straight fours without coxswains. It was a great learning experience for the guys. With no coxswain there was more responsibility put on their shoulders. They were responsible for the steering, making calls, and technical changes. It was a great chance for them to improve their overall all oarsmanship and awareness. It was great to see their growth in this department.
We rowed twice a day and the guys used their down time to swim in the nearby lakes. They spent an afternoon exploring the beautiful seaside town of Camden. We spent the first few days getting used to the new boats and moved into the selection process. We have 10 guys making the trip and we needed to determine who were the top two ports and two starboards for the "A" four and then the next two ports and starboards for the "B" four. Selection is never a cut and dry process and we have a lot of guys who are similar in speed. By the end of the week the lineups were set and the guys got used to steering straight courses and make the appropriate racing calls. As the lineups have come to form everyone is even more excited about the upcoming racing.
I want to thank Peter Steenstra, Bates Head Rowing Coach, for his hospitality. We were able to do things the Androscoggin that we could have never done on the Potomac at this time of year."
Stay tuned to @GW_MensRowing on Twitter and the Henley Havoc blog for updates from Henley.