A few notes from The Head of the Charles today, after the weather improved from a stormy practice session Friday. The Finish Area Launch Site (FALS) became a bit of a muddy mosh pit, but the resulting tailwind conditions after the thunderous rain storm Friday night were fast - although not many records would fall on the day due to a bit of a head current. Saturday morning was slightly muggy and warmer than the forecast, with record-setting temps, a mild tailwind and flat water, save perhaps for up in the basin before the start. The expanse of flat water that lay before the #1 bow numbers had some surprises--the storm brought down a lot of leaves, and skegs were grabbing them.
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Peter and Tom Graves, who have made the Head of the Charles Championship Men's Double somewhat of a specialty, may well have been headed for win #5 in 2012 (including three in a row leading up to this race). They had a decent start, but the Tideway Scullers entry with #2 bow started right on the defending champions tail, arguably not leaving the suggested 2 boat lengths at the start. Said #2 was the entry of Alan Campbell, GB Olympic bronze medalist in the single, and Aleksander Alekandrov from Azerbaijan, who placed a surprising fifth in the Olympic sincle. As the Graves brothers reacted to their proximity and took a slightly wider line, the put themselves in a heap of leaves and sticks just past Anderson Bridge, which dragged them astray by Weld boathouse. In the offing, they got a 50 second penalty and also had to stop to dislodge the array of leaves as their sixpeat fell from their clutches.
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In winning for the sixth consecutive year with the 1980 Men's 4+ in the Men's Master Four 50+ race, cox Gary Goldring dragged up some leaves, but at just the right time - just beyond the finish line. "I ran into debris right after the finish and had couldn't steer," said Goldring, after driving his way through the fray despite the lack of an operable rudder. He'll certainly forget the issue when gazing upon gold medals months hence.
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The Marin Rowing Association was intent on defending their 2011 upset of Etats Unis in the Senior Master Women's Eight, but wase not sure what to do with that #1 bow number, and no one to chase. 2011 winner Kate Boyd, in the 5-seat of the boat this year, said "we could see bow #2 getting further and further away. We have an amazing coxswain Mary Boland, and she had a clear shot and was able to take her ideal course... it was so exciting to take the turns.
"We were definitely thinking about what it meant to start first this year," she said of the race plan, "and that was a different head space because we hadn't done this before."
"We were terrified that someone from the back of the pack was faster, so we really brought it at the end, we never backed down," said Liz Thoron, 7 seat of the boat. Note that all but one of these rowers were without an Olympic or National team pedigree, and they defended their position with 2 Olympic reunion boats right on their tail.
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The Collegiate Women's 4+ provided the rubber-necker of the day, with the massively populated Eliot Bridge and Cambridge Boat Club offering the winces and shouted directions so many rubber-neckers - ah, i mean spectators, live for, as Washington College Crew and Wellesley College racked up one minute in penalties (at 10 seconds per penalty, these crews were on a run) while colliding not once, but twice as they passed under the bridge.
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In the Collegiate Men's 4+, with considerably less drama, the University of Virginia Men defended their #1 bow number with University of Michigan less than a second behind. "They were really happy just to race, and you never know how you finish, but they felt they had rowed well," said Virginia coach Frank Biller. "The coxswain made a difference here." Sarah Zillioux, a junior walk-on who had never raced at Boston, said "The whole time I reminded them to push away from Fordham (#2 bow), and that Michigan was in this race too," she shares. "I used the bridges as markers to motivate them, but they are pretty motivated crew on their own."
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The Senior Master Double entry from Cambridge of Harvard Coach Linda Muri and Saiya Remmler, easily contenders for any masters race, had to pull over at Harvard's Newell boathouse as Saiya Remmler had collapsed. At this writing, she is still at the hospital but row2k will keep you posted.
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The women's Champ single was won for the third consecutive year by Gevvie Stone, who was helped in the threepeat by using her built-in vantage point in the front of the procession to keep clear of a big pileup coming around the last turn of the racecourse. With five or six scullers within a few lengths of each other, and three or four of them basically abreast, things went from close to clashing as soon as the scullers took the final turn to starboard. It was impossible to see exactly who was affected and how, it was so closely packed, but the scullers who kept themselves out of the pileup got some well-timed help.
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Having rowed fewer than a handful of times since winning his gold medal in London did not serve Mahe Drysdale well on the Charles course; sarting in front with bow #1, he got passed by a batch of scullers on his way to a ninth place finish. Kjetil Borch took the win by under a couple seconds from Hap Whelpley, and a couple lightweights, Tom Paradiso and Will Daly, put themselves in the top six. Olympic fourth place finisher Lassi Karonen placed fourth on the Charles as well; he might want to think on the implications of his club name, Bride Maid Rk.
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Well done to everyone who raced today, and tremendous luck to everyone tomorrow; cheers from the Charles!
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