Tim Koch has been to see the start of the first of this year’s Henley Regattas.

Born in 1988 after failed attempts to introduce women’s races to Henley Royal Regatta, Henley Women’s Regatta (HWR) is today one if the major events for female rowers from around the world. Friday, 19 June, saw the start of this three-day event with 426 crews (up 53 from last year) hoping for success. This year has HWR’s largest ever overseas entry with representation from USA, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Australia and New Zealand as well as the regatta’s first entrant from Israel. The elite eights will be fought out between Leander, Cornell, Brown, Stanford, Oxford University and Imperial College. The Oxford boat has just two changes from their winning boat race crew but two times Olympic gold medalist Caryn Davies is still at stroke. All the action can be followed on Twitter and the website results page. Friday’s results are here. It’s time for me to catch the train to Henley to view Saturday’s action but, hopefully, the pictures below from Friday’s qualifying races and from the early ‘one on one’ races will capture the spirit of the event better than my attempts at prose can. Apologies for the slight pink and green bias in the pictures, I naturally spent a lot of my time following my own club, Auriol Kensington.