Competing at Henley is a dream come true for Thêta's rowers. Ahead of the competition, Cursor spoke with master's students of Mechanical Engineering and Henley competitors Chloé Aben (cox) and Joost Boerrigter (rower). “When you take up rowing, you trawl the race recordings and Henley comes up a lot. And you hear cool stories. We've been training for years and this is certainly the highlight of our rowing careers,” they report excitedly.

There are various cups to compete for at Henley, three of which are specifically for student crews. These require all crew members to be from the same university. Over the course of the regatta more than 300 races will be held, and many of the competitors will be international . “The qualifying procedure for our race is really tough,” says Pieter Teunissen, Thêta's Commissioner of External Relations. And so it made sense for Thêta to enter together with WK U23 and FISU under one name to represent the Netherlands. Teunissen: “This year we'll be taking our own association boat as well as three rowers training for the World Championship U23 and someone from the FISU boat (like the Olympic Games for university students). So in total there will be five boats, eight rowers (six men and two women) and a cox, a woman.”

Aben: “It's quite something that we're able to reach such a high level when we're a relatively small university. Compare us with, say, Harvard, who are also competing.” The team comprising Thêta, WK U23 and FISU was given an exemption from the qualifying race and is clear to start. Boerrigter: “We're really proud of being able to send a sufficiently elite crew that we can go straight to the starting line. Even as we speak, 21 other teams are battling it out for the last three places.”

Against the best

Whether the Dutch are in with a chance of winning, they find it hard to say. Boerrigter: “So many British and American crews are taking part. Harvard, Princeton, Oxford Brookes. You just don't know how good they are. But we think we're pretty good too.” It could be over in a flash. These are head-to-head races and if you lose, that's it, you're out. “So we could be finished as early as Wednesday – the day of the first race – or we could be rowing at the weekend in the final.”

The rowers are leaving for the UK on Tuesday June 27, headed for the River Thames at Henley. Their event preparations are being captured on film; they are making a documentary entitled, The Road to Henley. It'll be out very soon.