row2k's coverage hit a few time zones this week, from Poland's World Cup stop to the waters of Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, with stopovers on the Schuylkill for SNR and the Thames for HWR.

To catch you up on all that was, here's what we saw:

That 8 can be an Odd Number

At least, 8 sure looks odd when it's the number of medallists on a World Rowing Podium. Those usually come in groups of 3, 6, 12, 15, and 27...but 8? Well, when two doubles tie--down to the 1000/sec--for third and World Rowing, quite rightly, doles out two sets of bronze medals you get 8 for sure. Here is the photo finish of the Dutch and Aussie bows.

The historic Octet

The closest you used to be able to get to 8 medal winners was way back in the days of the Pair With. Paging the Abbagnales...

This Sure Sign of Summertime

Lining 'em up below the bridge in Philly? Must be the start of a summer's worth of 1000m Masters Races:

Or as it is also known: "Don't worry, fellas, it'll be over soon" time.

That Girls Flex, Too

After a spring full of junior boys flexing at the start-line to try and make it on to row2k--and that rogues gallery is coming, don't worry--it was fun to see the Redwood Scullers Youth Women throw a flex of their own after winning the Quad at Youth Nats.

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School Colors Day on the Schuylkill

Beavers, Dragons, Hawks and Gaels, oh my...and bonus points for the Hand Sanitizer Hack.

Sculling Bears at HWR

That's right, D1 rowers can scull, given half a chance:

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A post shared by Cal Women's Rowing (@calwrowing)

In fact, turns out that the only Brown-Cal (aka Bears vs Bears) showdown at the Henley Women's Regatta wound up being the quad, when the Cal Eight went out one round too early to meet Brown in the Champ Eights' Semi. The Brown Bears took that one, and then gave home club Leander all they could handle in the Final, holding the champions to a 2/3rds of a length decision.

Athletes Picking Lanes

World Rowing ran another trial of their Athlete Lane Selection protocol in some racing sessions at Poznan, which seems to have led to some start dock number swapping:

It's Definitely Still June

In Philly, and all over:

Much to the chagrin of the trolls commenting on USRowing posts.

That the Chinese Win the Warmup

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That Minnesotan's Don't Need Stakeboats

Just wade in? You betcha!

Or Fear Paddleboarders

Danger shot of week, for sure:

Don't worry, the next shot in the gallery shows that all ended well, the collision was avoided, and all seemed to go on to have a fine time sharing the lake.

Including, in this Photo of the Day from Colin Balmforth, this guy:

Guess you gotta get your laps in...

And They Definitely Do Beards Right

When you live in the Northland, you win the beard contest, hands-down.

Colleges are Putting U23s on the Schedule

Folks have a lot to say about how many internationals row at the top D1 programs--and there are more than a handful for sure--but at least three boats that won a spot on the U23 team at Trials this past week were, basically, college crews:

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In addition to this Harvard-Radcliffe duo in the LW2-, a Princeton crew won the M2- and a boat from NCAA D1 Champion Texas will represent the USA in the W4-.

Bruno Get a Head Start on Prizegiving

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India Bring 2 Eights to Poznan

IND Women's 8

Both of which raced the A Final, with the M8+ beating both the Czech Republic and Ukraine in the Rep to make the top 6.

IND Men's 8

And, Yes, This is Harder Than it Looks

Pro skills required, no question.

Rumors & Hearsay from the Week that Will Be

• Team USA to Henley: not a rumor, per se, but there will be big boats for the Americans at Stop # 2 on the US Team's European Selection/Preparation Tour--Henley-on-Thames. In addition to more small boat racing, especially for the 7 crews that are now eligible to claim a spot on the Worlds team in their boat class, and more fours, the Men will field an eight in the Grand Challenge Cup, racing as "California Rowing Club and Penn AC, USA" while the women will race the Remenham for Women's Eights as "Princeton Training Center and Advanced Rowing Initiative of the Northeast, USA"--the Chinese and Australian National Teams will also contest the eight, along with top GB eights racing partially or wholly as Leander Club.
• The Who-V?: the list of US universities has some heavy hitters--Cal, Dartmouth, and Yale on the Men's side in the Ladies Plate, and Cal, Brown, Princeton, Washington and Yale Women in the in the Island Cup for Student Eights--but rumors abound about which crews are intact from IRAs and NCAAs and which are "senior-only" or other combinations necessitated by the rules of each event. The downside of having a stroke with an Olympic Gold Medal? It does limit your options for racing at Henley.

The row2k Top Results of the Week

• USA's U19 & U23 Trials ran Tuesday and Wednesday last week
• The "Tale of the Bracket" on Brown's win in the HWR Champ 8
• The Sunday Summary from Poznan: always good to see a lot of "USA" in the A Finals at a world event.

Check out these items you may have missed this past week:

• The Most Viewed Photo of the Week -- the gold-medal-winning USA LW2x
• row2k's full World Cup report.
• Part 2 of our interview with Georgetown's Tony Johnson
• the 6/19 edition of row2k’s Best of Instagram: World Cup, Henley, animals and more.
• and the most read news link this past week? EARC Announces Major Awards for 2022 Season