Thursday racing commenced at 9:00 am with cool but sunny weather, calm and fast water, and Harvard on the course as the green light shown at the start. Sculling races appeared on the course early, as well, with Diamonds, Doubles, Fawley, and Prince of Wales Challenge Cup boats on the Thames.
Harvard's Temple eight earned the win over Durham "B" in the first fixture of the morning. This Harvard boat is the mostly freshmen crew that came third at the IRA, behind the California eight also racing in the Temple Cup here at Henley. Harvard's time to the barrier was 1:49, a length ahead of the Durham boat, but the California Frosh set a new Barrier record of 1:46 just ten races later. The Bears kept pouring it on in their win over the Dutch crew from University of Groningen, setting a new Fawley time as well, at 3:00, before taking a 2 and 1/4 length verdict. The Barrier record had been held by several boats, including the Washington frosh in 2010 and the Princeton lights in 2009. The new mark will be shared as well, with Dutch crew A.S.R. Nereus matching California's 1:46 time to the Barrier in race 21. Swift water today.
Also in the Temple, a US duel was a feature of the morning, pitting Florida Institute of Technology, on the Berkshire station, against Yale, on the Buckinghamshire station. Yale was warned for steering near the start, and FIT had the lead until Fawley, although not much more than a few feet separated the crews until that point. Yale made a well-timed move around Remenham, and gained the advantage they needed to win by a half length. Nice racing for F.I.T. in Henley: the team looked every bit the part of a qualified Henley crew. Congratulations to Coach Granger and his team.
Coach Andy Card's Yale lightweights picked up a lot of speed heading into the IRA, turning a Sprints bronze into a win over an unbeaten Harvard crew to take the national title. As a Henley crew, Card's lights are now facing heavyweights once again, and Yale is one of a handful of US lightweight crews who have challenged the big boys with great success at Henley, making it to the finals twice. In 2000, Yale became one of the only US lightweight varsity eights to win the Temple, and returned to the final in 2005, when they lost to Trinity's heavyweights. Only the Princeton lights have made the Sunday final as often, winning in 2009 and, of course, racing in 2003's all-Princeton final against the Tiger frosh heavies.
Card's eight did not have an easy go against F.I.T., and tomorrow they face off against the Harvard frosh. In 2001, these same two squads met in a semifinal of the Temple, so tomorrow's fixture will be just the second time, so far as Card can recall, that we will see a Harvard-Yale match-up at Henley. So Harvard-Yale it is tomorrow on the original Thames.
The 16 matches of the Diamond Challenge Sculls started today with US athlete, Trinity graduate and lightweight sculler, John Graves losing by two lengths. John is the youngest of the Graves brothers, and the Stewards here don't recall ever having two brothers contend the Diamonds in a year. Brother Thomas went down the course 30 minutes later, winning his contest by a length but after a fairly fierce battle at a high rating--let's see how those legs recover. Recovery will be key for the Graves boys: they are also racing in the Doubles Sculls Challenge Cup just after 6:00 pm this evening. John, by the way, was the lightweight single sculler at the Hamburg World Cup for the US, earning 5th in the finals. He is just out of his U23 years, so nice finish in that race.
The Graves family is committed to Henley racing. Father Harry won in 1976 in the Ladies and is a lifetime member of Leander. The brothers Peter and Thomas were stroke and bow of the Trinity boat that topped Yale to win the Temple in 2005, and John was in the finals in 2008 for another Larry Gluckman Trinity boat. Here they race for Craftsbury Sculling Center, where Gluckman is coaching. Here's to keeping the tradition alive.
Malvern Prep coach Craig Hoffman has his coaching card full at this 2011 Henley. He arrived in England with 3 Malvern Prep quads for the Fawley Challenge, and was also coaching a Malta Boat Club lightweight double and Shane O'Mara, who is rowing as Washington Street Sculling Club. The Malta double is manned by Malvern Prep assistant coach Sam Frycke-Cunningham and Mike Nucci, a Prep and Columbia grad who raced last year in the US Light Men's Pair.
O'Mara races later today in the Diamond Sculls. He raced in the US quad at the Gifu World Championships in 2005 and, while attending Cambridge in 2009, was the stroke of the Blue Boat until a couple days before the Boat Race, when he was pulled from the boat for emergency heart surgery. Now recovered, O'Mara has been living in Australia, where he has taken up surf boat racing and became the National Champion. Whew, what a story: looking forward to his return to competitive rowing racing.
For Hoffman, one of the three Malvern Prep quads did not qualify last week, and his "B" quad lost a heart breaker this morning. "Bow Jeremy Gonzalez steered a perfect course," said Hoffman. His teammates fought the entire course, as well: neither Yarm School nor Malvern Prep got a chance to settle, and rowed all the way at a 37. Yarm won in the end by the worst margin: a canvas.
Racing started in the Silver Goblets and Nickalls Challenge Cup today as well, where Justin Stangel and Tom Peszek of the US had an early challenge against the Aguirregomezcorta brothers from Spain, but pulled ahead with two lengths at Remenham, lowering rating and settling to finish the race ahead. US team may have won the race, but the for those of you keeping track at home, the Aguirregomezcorta brothers would win on Scrabble points 62-29 . . . and the only reason why the US duo gets 29 is because Tom Peszek has that "Z" in his name.
Stangel has made his mark with the US team partially in the grueling pair-with event, rowing bow in the US coxed pair in 2010. A Wisconsin native who rowed at Syracuse, Stangel has won at Henley before: in the Visitor's Challenge Plate while getting his masters at Oxford. His pair partner Peszek was stroke of the US Eight last year at Karipiro and rowed at Michigan. We'll get more about these US guys from Coach Tim McLaren for next report, stay tuned.
Just as morning racing concluded, there were three US boats going down the course ten minutes apart: University Barge Club in the Thames, Hobart in the Temple, and University of Virginia in the Prince Albert. For University Barge Club, it is more racing tomorrow, but for Hobart and the UVA 4+, who performed so well in their first Henley, it is their time to be spectators.
University Barge Club faced hometown athletes Upper Thames Rowing Club in this Thames Challenge bout, and what a tough draw. It was not an easy race for either crew, as they pushed each other to the very end, both boats within reach of the other during much of the race, with little opportunity to settle. As the crews came past the enclosures, Univ Barge pulled ahead about 1/4 length. By the progress boards, it was 3/4 and they held that margin.
"Kudos to Upper Thames for pushing us that hard," said coxswain Andy Kelly of University Barge. This crew, as 7-seat Greg Cobb suggests, is a group of "drinking buddies that decided to row together." To clarify on one name from yesterday, bowperson is Brendan O'Malley, not Brian, and good racing Brendan! Ok, that's settled, onward.
As mentioned yesterday, coxswain Andy Kelly, 7-seat Gregg Cobb and 5-seat Anselm Sauter were in the Princess Elizabeth-winning St. Joseph's Prep boat in 2000. Kelly had also coxed in 1999, and coached in 2005 for SJP after finishing college at University of Pennsylvania.
The group has raced mostly 1000 meter masters races, including the Quaker City Masters Regatta in Philadelphia--"The Super Bowl of Rowing," quipped Ryan Bonner, 3-seat--because of the opportunity to race so many times in a day. They have only raced three 2k races, and coxswain Andy Kelly feels they are getting better every time. row2k will keep readers up-to-date with these Philly boys.
OK, more from Thursday racing later today. Cheers from Henley.
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07/02/2011 8:37:48 AM
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