St. Catherines, ONTARIO - The 139^th annual Royal Canadian Henley (Aug 8 - 13) drew to a close on Sunday afternoon in St. Catherines, Ontario with some excellent results from Thunderbird rowers. Winning a Henley medal is considered a rite of passage in rowing and UBC's crews stepped up to the challenge against summer crews from all other North America made up largely of university athletes who are developing their form for the upcoming university season.
 
UBC rowers struck gold in several events starting with the Thunderbird women who took gold in the U23 8+ winning against US Development Camp, Washtenaw Rowing Centre. 

"We had limited time to prepare this lineup and knew strong internal focus would be required to be successful in the race," said UBC's Assistant Coach Zoe Fittig-Winn, reflecting on her crew's performance. "After their break-through at the 750m mark, UBC was able to thwart Riverside's multiple attempts to re-enter the race, allowing UBC to cross the finish line with an open water lead."


 
UBC's Owen Bartel, who rowed out of the Welland performance centre this summer, took gold on his home course in the U23 Men's 1x with a dominant win over 54 entries and runners-up from Oklahoma City High-Performance Center.
 
UBC's Niko Schramm rowing for his home St.Catherines Rowing Club was unstoppable throughout the regatta winning all four of his events:  golds in the U23 LM2x, Sr LM4-, U23 LM4- and Sr LM 8+.
 
Other notable results were achieved in Men's U234- who had to settle for 2^nd place in a down-to-the-wire race with familiar rivals from the University of Victoria.
 
UBC sent a squad of 26 athletes led by coaches Zoe-Fittig Winn and Harris Sheldon racing 18 events over the 6-day schedule.

Full Results here