Thames R.C. 'A' vs London R.C. - Britannia | Henley 2025 Finals

That was the sound of Sarah Winklis, the umpire who sets off the Britannia Challenge Cup final. It is Thames Rowing Club versus London Rowing Club. Club open, Coxed Falls. Some of the most powerful athletes that you can find in a club across the country. Yeah, Coxed Falls is a tough boat because you've got a bit of extra weight per athlete to carry compared with the eight, so it takes a bit of time to get moving and it requires patience and power. You want to go out of it like a train pulling out of a station. I thought both crews started really well there. You could get that sense of power. And we talked about the experience in both of these crews, looking at the Thames crew here. They seem to have a bit of an edge. It can be deceptive as we pick them up alongside with our captain around, but I think Thames have gone out really strongly and it's now for London to get into a powerful rhythm and see if they can hold on to them at this point. There is so much strength and depth in that Thames program and not only are they the holders, they have won the last three races. So if they win a fourth, they will be making history for their club and look at the power, the intention with which they have started this race. Yeah, credit to Thames. I mean, earlier today, London won the Thames Cup and they also won the White Forks in that re-row. If you were with us throughout the day, you saw dramatic scenes as they lost their fin, I think, in the race against Sydney. They had a re-row and they won that. Both of those races, London were leading all the way. In this one, the tables are turned and it's the men from Thames who take the lead. So on the near side here, we have the London crew and we can see the power that is being put in by the bowman, Joshua Lyon. The cox is just in front of him, so the London cox can see the Thames crew moving away. He'll be watching, trying to assess, have they gone too hard in the first part of the race? He'll be watching for any signs of weakness, but there are no signs of weakness at the moment in the Thames Rowing Club A crew, which is James Woodford at bow, Richard Hume at two, Luke Putter at three, Callum Young at stroke and Rahul Ramakrishnan at his, the cox. Yeah, they've passed the barrier, the yellow flags going down 637 metres down the course. And the number one goes up for Thames Rowing Club, sitting there on the Barkshire station. That's lane one. Lane two is London. They pass through. We'll see exactly what the margin is there. Whoa, it's that dangerous distance, Kath, isn't it? Where there's just a minute overlap, maybe a bow bone. We saw the head of Rose Lewis, the 27-year-old cox of London Rowing Club, just looking across at the opposition. She's got a critical role to play now. This is all about how you manage the races to get here. They've had tough races, so it's about the depth of resilience you have, physically, mentally, emotionally. It's about how you can really save the best for the last race of the day, how you make sure you peak. And here we can see Rose absolutely is going to be under pressure in the London crew. It's 10 swing past us there. Rahul Ramakrishnan is going to be focusing on the end of the course ahead of him, watching them get ever closer. And he, at the moment, can't see London, and he'll be happy about that. So the best form guide we have recently is what happened yesterday. And I look to see that London were a second slower to each of the barrier and foley markers. We're just approaching the former foley marker now. So a second would be maybe a third to two thirds of a length in a coxswath, something like that. Looks like Thames are performing ahead of that in this race. So the momentum really is with Thames. We're now into that critical stage. Foley comes up and nine metres past this foley mark, which is about where Thames are now. That's the halfway mark. It is, and it's important, isn't it, for the London Rowing Club crew to stay in contact in order to ask questions of what Thames have put in in order to get ahead. They need to make sure that they can try and hang on and then put one of those pushes in down the middle of the race that could potentially bring them right back into contention. But at the moment, it is Thames who are dominating this race. Looking at the London crew here, Cass, just to see whether we think they've got something there. I do think they're rowing pretty well. Joshua Lyon, 23 years old in the bow seat. He's a single sculler. He's competed in the wing fields. So he'll be a great person to have there in the bow seat setting up the boat. In front of him, Lawrence Ellis, 26 years old. Ben Stathmer, who is 26 and stroked by Edward Thomas at 27. Is there a move here? Rose Lewis calls her crew on. London have overlap again. Canvas up on the Thames crew. Momentum is with London. These are all athletes who hold down jobs at the same time. It is so impressive what they do. They have so much experience of racing for clubs, racing some of them as juniors. They have sculling experience. Joshua Lyon was a wing field scull champion. There is so much skill in this event and we see that they come back again, throwing more punches and more punches. We know that Lawrence Ellis at two of that London club is about to go and run an ultra marathon in the Alps next week. He is going to be not thinking about that, but putting everything that he has to try and come back at Thames. And they are gradually creeping back. I think Thames in the last kind of 15, 20 seconds have held London at about half a length. Now the Thames crew are responding and moving. You can see a little bit more intensity, perhaps half a pip to a pip. That's a stroke a minute from the Thames crew coming up and responding to that London move. London, really strong move from almost clear water down to half a length back, but it's been expensive. Now it's the turn of the men from Thames, the holders they won in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2018, four of the last six races. And that gives you some confidence here, doesn't it, for Thames Rowing Club? You believe in the program, you believe in what the coaches are doing. Of course, Xander Smulders at Thames, who has such experience of how to get the right race plan, of how to support a crew through the whole week. It's a series of races that all of these athletes have had over the last few days. And here they are then asked to produce even more and it is Thames who will be getting ready for the line to be sprinting in now. It is Rahul Ramakrishnan in the Coxing Sea who will be asking for more, who will want to get clear water. He'll be listening out for the Thames crews who are cheering, the supporters, the alumni, the parents, all of those who've been helping and supporting these athletes as London rally one more time and start embarking on their sprint. Thames won the inaugural Bridge Challenge Cup, the women's intermediate eights event earlier. They want another trophy to lift. The club will be pleased to see where they are now. It's pretty hard to see London responding in the remaining four or five strokes. We can see, or maybe it's 10 strokes as they pass the progress board. We can see them out of the window here, really strong rowing from Thames, really composed. They responded well to quite a spectacular London move in the middle. You can see London absolutely going for it, but they look more tired. The legs in Thames, three more strokes, two more strokes, one more strokes. They're ready to hold them off the trophy. London gave everything. They tested Thames in the middle of the course, but it is Thames Rowing Club A who crossed the line first in the Britannia Challenge Cup. James Woodford, Richard Hulme, Luke Putter, Callum Young and Rahul Mamakrishnan win the Thames Rowing Club. Thames Rowing Club delighted to see that. You can see it was a tough, tough race for them, but yes, yes, says Richard Hulme, they've got it.