Filippi enjoyed another very successful weekend at the 2024 staging of Henley Women’s Regatta, securing five wins in a range of categories. Run over three days on the iconic Henley stretch, Henley Women’s Regatta serves as the world’s premier female-only rowing competition and generated a record entry this year. Hundreds of crews flocked to take part, including from as far afield as New Zealand and Australia, and racing was action-packed from time-trials on Friday right through to finals on Sunday afternoon.
In the very first final of the day, Isobel Lancaster took the win in the championship lightweight single sculls for the Fiona Dennis Trophy, drawing slowly away from her competition, Leonie Kennedy, of Surrey University. Representing Reading University, Isobel has had a magnificent season that cluminated on the Henley stretch, but not before she placed fourth at BUCS Regatta in the championship lightweight category, and more recently first in the lightweight category on the Saturday of the Metropolitan Regatta.
Shortly after, Louise Manning and Laura Macro of Dart Totnes Amateur Rowing Club won the Haslam Trophy for championship lightweight double sculls. This was a superb row from a crew featuring Macro, who also won the Fiona Dennis Trophy, in 2019 and 2023, which takes her to three victories at Henley Women’s Regatta overall.
Our next win came in the W. Peer Cup for championship doubles – completing our sweep of the championship two-person sculling events – as Jenny Bates and Freya Keto defeated a Reading University crew that also completed the course in a Filippi. Representing Oxford Brookes University and Thames Rowing Club, this crew secured victory on the Henley reach after a strong performance at the third World Rowing Cup of the year in Poznan, where they reached the ‘A’ final.
Our fourth victory was collected in the Bernard Churcher Trophy for Aspirational Singles Sculls, as the City of Oxford sculler, Caitlin Armstrong, rowed away from Mortlake Anglian & Alpha’s Jennifer Bailey. Caitlin started rowing in 2012 at Merton College (Oxford) and initially hated it because of the cold wet mornings and blisters, but five campaigns at Henley Women’s Regatta, crowned by this stunning win, has certainly energised her love for the sport.
To round out the day, we took the win in the Borne Cup at championship quads via a Nottingham RC, Trentham BC and Twickenham RC composite that represents some of our fastest UK development athletes. These athletes came through the World Class Start programme at Twickenham with Ben Pritchard and coach Helen Brown. They unseated home favourites from Leander Club in the final, halting the Pink Palace from collecting their third straight win.
This was a fantastic weekend of rowing and one in which we were delighted to partner up with JRN in producing their debut wrap-up show from the on-site Filippi trailer. We are extremely excited to be attending Henley Royal Regatta next week, where we expect Filippi crews to be out in full force.
