The full notice can be seen here: Notice of Annual General Meeting
Lauren Henry wins Gold at Paris 2024 Olympics!
Lauren’s Journey written by her coach, Howard Marsh:
We are thrilled to announce that Lauren Henry from Leicester Rowing Club and her crew – Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson, and Georgie Brayshaw – have won Olympic GOLD in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) at the Paris Olympics. Winning by the narrow margin of just 0.15 of a second, about 35cm! This incredible achievement is the culmination of years of hard work, dedication, and determination.

“Wow, that was a tremendous race. You really came back strongly; your determination and drive to get over the line first was fantastic. You really stayed in the race well and pushed and pushed, you never gave up! Amazingly well done!”
You could be forgiven for thinking that this was the response to Lauren after she won Olympic gold. However, this was some eight years earlier, the first ever race I coached Lauren in when she was a J14 sculler at Peterborough Summer Regatta in 2016.
Could you tell then that there was a future Olympic Champion in our midst? Certainly there were many of the basic ingredients – determination, an ability to work hard – a real will to win – to never give up! However, anyone who thinks that it has been a straightforward journey from J14 singles at Peterborough in 2016 to the Paris Olympics in 2024 will be disappointed. The trend has been upwards, but there have also been some hard-hitting lows as well. It just shows Lauren’s strength of character that she has kept fighting, kept her dream burning, kept pushing onwards, kept making progress. I’d like to share a few of the highs that have been an absolute privilege for me to witness.
Lauren’s journey with us began eight years ago, and for six and a half of those years, I had the very great privilege of coaching her. Over this time, she has not only grown as an athlete but also inspired everyone around her. Here are some of the many highs from Lauren’s rowing career:
2016 Peterborough Summer Regatta
A tremendously gutsy row saw her win Women’s J14A 1x by 7 seconds beating the silver medallist at the JIRR regatta.
2018 British Rowing Junior Championships
A very mature scull in the final of the Women’s J16 1x, saw her come through to win by 4 seconds,
Junior Trials February 2019
A tremendous race over the 5k Boston course, used by all the GB squads for winter trialling, resulted in two wins for Lauren over the best of the junior women in GB at the time; by over 20 seconds on the Saturday in her single, and with her doubles partner Liv Morgan from Shiplake, 35 seconds on the Sunday. A truly dominant display.
Henley Women’s Regatta 2019
The combination of Lauren and Liv in the double was outstanding, winning all their races in Aspirational Doubles comfortably and setting a new course record in the final. Remarkable for a junior crew in a senior event.
2019 World Junior Championships – Tokyo
First world championship selection, a tremendous reward for all Laurens hard work. Selected in the 2x With Liv. Things didn’t go as well as we’d all hoped. However Lauren fought hard over the coming years to make her dreams become a reality.
As many will remember, Covid hit during the next year and a half, which put paid to 2020. Lauren took to her static bike in the garage at her home and cranked out several Tour de France mileages over the course of the lockdowns.
“Open” GB Trials May 2021
These were for all athletes not in the GB senior squad. Lauren was the fastest overall women’s trialist, winning the A final, over 2000m, by over 7 seconds.
2021 U23 World U23 Championships
Selected to represent GB at the World U23 Championships in the single sculls at the tender age of just 19. Lauren finished 4th in a very, very strong field. This was the joint highest placing by any female GB single sculler at an U23 championships.
2021 Henley Royal Regatta
Forced to go through the qualification time trials, Lauren did a magnificent job in the international event, The Princess Royal Challenge Cup. In the 2nd round, Lauren, still aged just 19, kept her composure and, despite going down early on, beat the recently crowned Olympic Champion in eights, Andrea Proske. Lauren came through the semi-final beating the 4th placed American trialist. In the final she sculled magnificently, again going down but showing that never-say-die spirit, sprinting hard to the line, and just losing – to her future Olympic teammate Lola Anderson – by just 3 feet. As a 19-year-old, this was truly remarkable.
Senior Trials 2023
Lauren, still training at Leicester Rowing Club, becomes the single sculls winner of the Senior GB Trials, by over 2 seconds. The first time this has ever been achieved by a non‑squad athlete.
On the back of this, Lauren was invited for further selection testing for the full senior squad. The result – bow in the women’s quad.
How the quad grew during the year:
- Bronze at the European Rowing Championships
- Silver at World Cups 2 and 3
- Gold medal at World Championships in September, at just 21!
Since last September, Lauren has been full-time down at Caversham, at the National Training Centre. This year, after an initial blip at the first World Cup, it’s been gold all the way for her and the crew; gold at the Europeans, gold at World Cup 2, and a brilliant, brilliant win to be crowned Olympic Champions!
Lauren, at the tender age of just 22, is believed to be the youngest rower to hold all three crowns at once; European Champion, World Champion and Olympic Champion, in any boat classification, male or female!

AGM 2023
- President’s Address
- 2022 AGM Minutes
- Captain’s Report
- Secretary’s Report
- Social Chairman Report (Not provided)
- Club Water Safety Audit and Safety Report
- Junior Rep Report
- Maintenance Report (Not provided)
- Audited Accounts
- Membership Fees 2023-2024
- Committee Nominations
- LRC Vice Presidents
- AGM 2023 Agenda
- LRC Constitution
Lauren Henry from Leicester wins Senior trials
The Great Britain Senior and U23 April trials, are the culmination of the trialling season. The winners are usually fairly predictable and always, always, come from within; within the realms of the GB Rowing Team, ie athletes from the National Training Centre base at Caversham; and never, in the case of open men or women, never an under 23!

For this not to be the case, either shows that the talent at Caversham is not what it once was, or that a fluke performance occurred, or, someone of equal talent and potential to those at the centre has been discovered.
The first of these premises can be firmly allayed. The GB rowing team is one of the most talented sports teams across the world, the training required to reach the top is substantial and relentless, the rowers at the centre are incredibly talented, competitive and professional. The results for the GB team at last year’s World Rowing Championships, coming top of the medal table: 7 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze, underlines that status.
Maybe it was a fluke. Taken across this season’s previous GB trials, November and February, coming 2nd and 3rd respectively, would suggest that this result was no fluke, but was a fruition of competency and consistency.
So we’re left with the last of the options: someone of equal talent and potential. This would seem to be the picture that is being painted, in ever stronger brush strokes. I think those of us who have witnessed at first hand the progress, have always known that success would come. From watching the way Lauren battled her way to first place over 1000m at Peterborough Summer regatta as a J14: through her first major win, at the J16 National Championships: dominating the national scene in the junior ranks and being selected to go to Tokyo for the World Rowing Championships in 2019: to then, after Covid and lockdowns, being the top U23 female sculler in GB and finishing 4th two years in succession at the World U23 Championships, Lauren has always worked hard, incredibly hard, to make her dreams come true.
The fact that, Lauren has trained pretty much on her own, not part of a big squad, much of that time spent on a bike, hours and hours spent on a bike, in her family garage, speaks volumes about the determination and dedication she has. It’s not been all plain-sailing either for Lauren. A series of rib stress fractures over the covid era and into the 2021 season, have been incredibly tough tests for her. The fact that she keeps getting up and trying again, and again, is the spirit which will surely get her to the very top of the world.
The trials
They consist of a time trial on Saturday morning to broadly rank all the athletes: Men and women in their respective events in singles and pairs. Then in the afternoon the semi-finals take place to decide on the finals on Sunday.
In the time trial, Lauren sculled a conservative race early race, finishing strongly, to place 3rd, comfortably qualifying for the A/B semi-final – these are the the top 12 ranked scullers.

Saturday afternoons semis came round and Lauren was drawn with Hannah Scott who got to the final of the senior World Championships in a single last year and Georgie Brayshaw who was part of the World Champs silver medal quad.
The top 3 were comfortable and finished with Hannah in first, Lauren 2nd and Georgie 3rd.
The other semi final was very much a lightweight affair, with the two outstanding lightweights Emily Craig and Imogen Grant finishing 1st and 2nd with Liv Bates, from Nottingham another young promising talent, in 3rd.
Onto Sunday morning and finals day. Who was going to grasp the opportunity from the finely balanced and what looked like, evenly matched field?
Unfortunately, all we have to go on is the final positions. After chatting to Lauren, her aim was to be in the race, be part of the pack and then use her strengths, incredible endurance – all those hours on a bike in the garage – to best effect in the 2nd half of the race. All I can say is, the plan must have worked well, as she came home victorious.
The official results were:
1 Lauren HENRY *, Leicester RC & University of Leicester BC
2 Hannah SCOTT, Bann RC / Leander Club
3 Imogen GRANT (LW), Cambridge University BC
4 Emily CRAIG (LW), University of London BC
5 Georgie BRAYSHAW, Leander Club
6 Olivia BATES (LW), Nottinghamshire County RA
Many, many congratulations on your momentous win Lauren. Leicester Rowing Club are all so proud of your achievements. I’m sure it’ll not be long before we’re watching you on the TV representing the GB Rowing Team as a full international. All the very best of luck in your future endeavours!
AGM 2022
- President’s Address
- 2021 AGM Minutes
- Captain’s Report
- Secretary’s Report
- Social Chairman Report (Not provided)
- Club Water Safety Audit and Safety Report
- Junior Rep Report
- Change to Constitution re Social Committee proposal
- Appendix A to Change to Constitution re Social Committee proposal
- Maintenance Report
- Audited Accounts
- Appendix B Proposed rates for subscriptions and rack rents
- Committee Nominations
- LRC Vice Presidents
- AGM 2022 Agenda
2021 AGM
GB Rowing Team, Open Trials, Caversham, 22nd May 2021
This years U23 and senior trials, took on a slightly different tone, with social distancing and masks worn at all times, unless on the water rowing. The racing, was, as ever, extremely competitive. Outside of the senior squad, over 140 of the top male and female rowers from across Britain came to Caversham seeking selection for the World U23 Championships and to get noticed by the selectors.
In the women’s single sculls, having not competed for 18 months due to the pandemic and injury, Lauren Henry took to the water in good shape, but in slightly cautious mood, not knowing what the opposition might do. Before the event she said, “You never know what your opposition might do on the day, there are some really fast girls competing. I can only do my race and execute my plan to the best of my ability.”
The trials were originally going to be a 2 day event, but were condensed into 1 day due to adverse weather predictions for Sunday. The format was to run a time trial in the morning, from which crews would be seeded into groups of 6 for the finals in the afternoon; top 6 go to the A final, 7th to 12th to the B final and so on.
Starting 8th, in a field of 22, Lauren powered her way down the course in her time trial. Her coach Howard Marsh said, “I could tell she was going to have a good scull, she was totally focussed on what she had to do beforehand. I watched her come down the course, I was very impressed, she looked like she executed what we spoke about before the race really well. Talking about it before hand is one thing, but to actually do it is quite something else.”
The result of the time trial could not have been better. Lauren won, and had a nice cushion in time over the next placed girl. Time trials can be funny things, and some people don’t always race them so well, so Lauren couldn’t afford to get too excited; there was still a final to race.
In the A final in the late afternoon, the top 6 girls lined up on the stakeboats. As the starter called the crews over, Lauren looked very calm and collected. As the race began, everyone powered out of the blocks and it was a very even start across the field. One of the scullers was making a bit of a sprint of it and narrowly led through the 500m mark, but it was pretty even across all the other crews, with just 3 seconds separating all 6, with Lauren sitting in 2nd nudging her bows in front of the rest. By halfway, Lauren was beginning to push ahead of her rivals, who were all still very tightly packed, with little over a length separating 2nd to 6th. The rest of the field stayed almost in a line as Lauren, rating a powerful 34 forged further ahead. As the race came into the closing stages, it became quite clear there was only going to be one winner. Lauren, maintaining the intensity she had from the first stroke, crossed the line several lengths of clear water ahead of the chasing pack. A job well done!
Afterwards Lauren said, “It was great to be back racing after all this time. I’m obviously really pleased to have won, but I’m especially pleased with the way the race went. We had trained well over the last few weeks, and I wanted to race the way I train; I felt like I did that today.” Her coach commented that he could see that Lauren was in a very good place mentally and that she was taking the confidence from her training into her racing. It was a real joy to see her push through against such a strong field and keep the focus all the way to the line. Even when things were tight in the first 500m, Lauren kept cool, stuck to her plan and raced all the way.
There will be more testing to be done in regards to potential selection for the U23 World Championships, held this year in the Czech Republic in mid July. Lauren has, however, put down a clear marker to the selectors and shown them what she is capable of. Saturday could not have gone any better.
LRC AGM 2020
Sophie Connolly breaks World Record!
The club being closed and not being allowed out on the water didn’t stop club member Sophie Connolly who got up one morning and decided to go for the World Record for 100,000 metres on the rowing machine. 7 hours 44 minutes and 21.2 seconds later Sophie was a World Record holder with the achievement officially confirmed by Concept 2.
Congratulations from everyone at the club Sophie!



National Championships Win for Lauren Henry
Leicester Rowing Club’s single sculler Lauren Henry topped a successful season by winning her Junior 16 age category at the British Rowing Junior Championships on Sunday. Over 2 days of gruelling competition Lauren came out on top of a field of 28 athletes from around the UK. Third place in Saturday’s time trial was followed by victory in the semi-final, which secured a prime lane for the final. After making a positive start in the 5-boat final Lauren patiently worked her way through the field to hit the front in the final 500m before rowing away from her opposition to win by an impressive margin of over 4 seconds. This victory follows a semi-final appearance at Henley Women’s Regatta racing against rowers two years her senior and wins in both national and regional regattas in her own age category earlier in the season.
Afterwards a delighted Lauren commented, ‘It was definitely a really tough race – but I just stuck to my race plan and it worked in the end. I would like to thank my coach, Howard Marsh. Without him none of this would have been possible. I would also like to thank Leicester Rowing Club who have supported me in many ways throughout this season’
Coach Howard Marsh, who was presented with a gold medal by Lauren to recognise his efforts comments ‘Lauren has worked incredibly hard over the last 10 months. She sculled with great maturity, sticking to her race plan when other scullers were ahead of her, fighting her way back, before sprinting clear. This year has not been all plain sailing, it’s had its ups and downs, but Lauren has consistently shown a great deal of determination to improve. This win really caps off a very good season for her and I know she is looking forward to making more progress next year and potentially being selected for the GB Junior team.
Club President Liz Pulford added
‘We are all very proud of what Lauren has achieved and have been impressed by her hard work and determination.’
Watch Lauren racing her final on Youtube from 7:15:00