This past week the Kingston Rowing Club delivered a historic performance at the 142nd Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in St Catharines, Ontario. The KRC finished as the top-performing club from Ontario with five gold medals while showing depth across both men's and women's events, and sculling and sweeping disciplines. In addition to the trophy wins KRC rowers had 9 other podium finishes over the 4 days of finals and finished 4th overall in wins out of 131 clubs from across Canada and the US and including international racers from Argentina and Mexico.
Kicking off the regatta's first final on Thursday for Kingston on was Queen's Rowing's Men's Captain Nigel Radhakrishnan (Electrical Engineering) , who dominated the field wire-to-wire in the U23 Lightweight Men's Single Scull in winning by more than 7 seconds. This performance comes on the heels of an impressive summer of international racing for Nigel in which he won the U23 Openweight Single at the prestigious Holland Beker Regatta in Amsterdam, and the U23 Openweight Single at the US National Championships.
From Nigel: "Very proud to win my first Henley gold in the U23 Lightweight Men's 1x. This event has been my guiding inspiration for continued improvements in rowing for the last 4 years. It was an amazing race, a dream come true to get my hands on the beautiful Theo Dubois trophy in my last kick at the can. The best moment of my career so far!"
Later that day the Senior Lightweight Men's Four of Dennis Ovdiyenko (Mining Engineering), Markus Muller (Engineering Chemistry), Liam Shapland (Electrical Engineering) and James Cuff (Arts & Sciences) won their race by more than a boat length over strong University of Victoria and St Catharines Rowing Club crews in a quick time of 6:20.68.
After a quieter Friday of tight racing and a few impressive podium finishes from KRC crews our Saturday started with a bang when the Senior Women's Four of Jacquie Groenewegen (Computer Engineering), Ceilidh MacDonald (Mathematics), Julia Schuurmans (Julia Schuurmans) and Abby Speirs (Physiotherapy) absolutely crushed a field littered with international-level University and club crews from the US, Argentina and Canada to win by more than 8 seconds.
From Jacquie: "This race was really special to me – it might be the last time I race with some of these girls after years together. After a tough heat, we knew the final would be fierce. We went for it off the start and never let up. I kept asking for more, telling the girls the other boats weren't gaining an inch, and they didn't. We crossed the line with open water, hit with feelings of joy, relief, and a little sadness that it was over. Holding that trophy above our heads was so amazing and made us all thankful we had this opportunity to row together one last time."
Less than an hour later the KRC won their last 2 titles in back-to-back races, with Dennis Ovdiyenko claiming his second gold by joining Alex Ladage to win the Senior Lightweight Men's Pair in the first, and then Nigel Radhakrishnan (Electrical Engineering) linking up with Liam Shapland (Electrical Engineering) to take the title in the U23 Lightweight Men's Double Scull against an incredibly deep and fast field.
Again from Nigel: "It is truly special to be part of this group that continues to push each other daily and raise the standard of the team to new levels. I'm immensely proud of what we have accomplished, and even more excited for what we can achieve together this fall!
