A record 862 entries came to Henley in 2026, and Great Britain met Italy in straight finals for both premier eights trophies.
Henley Royal Regatta ran on the Thames from Tuesday 30 June to Sunday 5 July 2026, with a record 862 entries from 21 nations and nine reigning Olympic champions among the crews.
A self-perpetuating body of Stewards, largely former rowers, organises the regatta, and its trophies include the Grand Challenge Cup, awarded since the first regatta in 1839, and the Ladies’ Challenge Plate, which dates from 1845. Qualifying races before the regatta cut the entry by nearly half, to 453, and the draw then set the pathways to thirty trophies.
Three new women’s quadruple sculls events opened in the Intermediate, Club and Student categories: the Princess of Wales Challenge Trophy, the Danesfield Challenge Cup and the Queen Victoria Challenge Cup. Women could then race in fourteen events.
On finals Sunday the two premier eights events were straight finals between Great Britain and Italy. Great Britain, racing as Oxford Brookes University and Leander Club, took the Grand Challenge Cup by three lengths, and Leander and Molesey took the Remenham Challenge Cup by the same margin. Italy won the Queen Mother Challenge Cup, and Olli Zeidler took a fifth Diamond Challenge Sculls. Serbia’s Mackovic and Pimenov won the Double Sculls Challenge Cup, the first Henley title for their country. Hollandia Roeiclub took the Town Challenge Cup after Nautilus, whose steering wandered across the course, were disqualified.