Two rowers receive medical help after collapsing
The dramatic mid-race collapse of a rower at Henley Royal Regatta yesterday led to the worldwide livestream of the rowing being cut for 15 minutes “due to technical issues”.
The strokeman of the front-runner Oxford Brookes University crew in the Temple student eights, William Denegri, started to falter as Dutch students Triton began to close on them in the Stewards’ Enclosure, and collapsed before the line as Triton rowed through to win.
Denegri was swiftly hauled into the waiting lifeguard boat at the finish and given medical attention, while the live feed was restored 10 minutes later, starting from the next race.
This was the second collapse of the day, after Shrewsbury School’s Maya Gruen also needed on-water medical help three hours earlier, following a tremendous junior women’s eights race against Lady Eleanor Holles School.
The Londoners held off the Shropshire schoolgirls to win by six feet, but the margin had been down to one foot as they battled through the Enclosures.
“As can sometimes happen in the sport of rowing, after finishing their respective races today it became apparent that two athletes on the water needed medical attention,” a statement from the organisers said.
“There was rapid attendance when it was clear they were unwell, first from our waterborne safety team, who then immediately transferred them to the land-based medical team. They were treated and are recovering well.”
The video from the schoolgirls’ race was edited to remove Gruen’s collapse and the Brookes race video was not yet available last night.
Three Tokyo Olympic champions were in action, Ireland’s lightweights Paul O’donovan and Fintan Mccarthy beating former openweight world silver medallists Sam Townsend and Charles Cousins by under a length in the Doubles after a relentless British chase, but without having to use their finish sprint.
Cousins and Townsend’s former crewmate, Graeme Thomas, beat under-23 quads world champion George Bourne and is now hoping to win the Diamonds singles as redemption for fourth place in the Tokyo doubles.
Aspiring GB sculler Lauren Henry can add an Olympic champion’s scalp to her CV after beating Tokyo eights gold medallist Andrea
Proske in the Princess Royal singles. Undaunted by her opponent’s achievement two weeks before, Henry pursued Proske after the Canadian took a strong early lead, and rowed back through at halfway to win by more than five lengths.
Wins for St Paul’s School over American national champions St Joseph’s Prep and for Eton, narrowly over King’s College School, increased the chance these two will meet in the final of the Princess Elizabeth eights tomorrow, though they will first have to get past Westminster and St Edward’s, who beat Shrewsbury and Abingdon respectively.