Guin Batten at the helm of the largest women’s rowing event in the world – WEHoRR

This Saturday will see the 78th running of the Women’s Head of the River Race (WEHoRR), the largest women’s rowing race in the world. This year there are 319 crews entered, a bigger entry than the Head of the River Race, for the first time. The event is run by a committee of 14 with an army of volunteers, up to 150, supporting in the lead-up and on the day. WEROW spoke to Guin Batten, chairman and race co-ordinator about the success of the event and the challenges they face.

Guin Batten Chairman of WEHoRR photographed at Upper Thames Rowing Club

Guin Batten is a woman who gets things done. An Olympian, she won silver in the W4x at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 with her sister, Miriam Batten who is Chairman of Henley Women’s Regatta, Gillian Lindsay, head of rowing at Wimbledon High, and Olympic legend Katherine Grainger. In 2003 Batten set a world record for the fastest solo crossing of the English Channel and in January was appointed the head of strategy and development at British Canoeing. She also holds positions with FISA, is a Steward of Henley Royal Regatta and is a trustee of the River & Rowing Museum. “The most inspirational thing about taking part in the head is not just the size or how difficult it is to win, but also how the event has tracked the growth of women’s rowing. If you look at the entry for the first race back in 1930 and where it is today and you look at that growth, it is a mirror of how women’s rowing is growing domestically throughout the UK. It’s both really exciting and a huge privilege to chair what is now the largest and possibly the longest-running women’s rowing event in the world”. WEHoRR is part of a big weekend of rowing which comprises the Junior Indoor Rowing Championships (NJIRC), the Men’s Head of the River, School’s Head of the River and the Junior Sculling Head. It’s the last big weekend of the head season by which crews will be judged going into regatta season. Women’s rowing is undoubtedly, and much belatedly on the rise. This was evidenced by the recent BUCS head in Newcastle where many universities fielded more female crews than male. Events like WEHoRR and Henley Women’s Regatta will undoubtedly have fuelled this but Batten thinks that rowing represents a unique opportunity for women. “Rowing is very much an uncompromising team sport, one which requires a huge amount of collaboration and that element of doing something together without there being a hero in the boat, which seems very compelling to the competitive nature in women”.