Henley Royal Regatta history for Cambridge ‘99 Rowing Club members
Cambridge ‘99 Rowing Club celebrated two Cambridge Town records being broken at this year’s Henley Royal Regatta.
On an individual note it was an event to remember for the club’s Will Young, who went further than any Town rower previously in reaching the semi-finals of the Diamond Challenge Sculls.
Last Wednesday, Young got the better of London Rowing Club’s Dara Alizadeh, who is a two-time Men’s Boat Race winner with Cambridge University Boat Club and an Olympian with Bermuda.
And he duly followed that success up 48 hours later with victory over World Championship rower Steve Cox of Zimbabwe before coming up against Poland’s Piotr Plominski in the last four.
It proved to be a step too far as the WTW Warszawa rower, who went on to lose the final to Oliver Zeidler, came out on top – yet it was still a memorable outing for Young to go alongside his victories at Wallingford, Met and Marlow this season.
Meanwhile, the club’s Thames Challenge Cup team got through to Thursday’s race, which is as far as any Town eight has previously managed.
The group won through against Vesta Rowing Club B but then suffered a defeat against Munich Rowing Club from 1880 e.V. of Germany, who themselves went on to lose to eventual champions Thames Rowing Club A.