When Dave Fellows and Dick Cashin, representing the Harvard Business School, finished first in the 1979 Head of The Charles Championship Pairs race, no one could have realized they'd be the reigning champions for 44 years. The race was dropped from the increasingly crowded HOCR schedule the next year. But after a successful exhibition a year ago, the race has officially returned and the rowers competing in it could not be more thrilled.
"It's really just so exciting," Aina Cid of the Spanish national team said. Cid has represented Spain in the Olympics and raced collegiately at Ohio State, but this will be her first Head of the Charles. "The fact that they're bringing it back after all these years and we'll be competing in it is an honor," Cid said. "It's going to be a challenge, for sure. With pairs comes more room for error, so the connection between your partner needs to be solid."
One of the reasons the pairs race went away was the disconnect between the serpentine HOCR course and the notoriously tricky pairs boat, demanding a partnership between two rowers equally matched physically and in synch mentally. The pairs race this year will be an invitation-only race, the fields limited to crews from national rowing federations. Molly Bruggeman and Kelsey Reelick will represent USRowing.
"There's so much back and forth communication in a pairs race," Bruggeman explained. "In a difficult course such as the Charles, that attention to detail is crucial.
"This is going to be such a great race," she said. "I've competed in the Head of The Charles many times, but it was always with a coxswain. The pairs is an exciting and long-awaited event."
"Long-awaited" is an understatement. Ending the pairs' four-decade absence has been in the works for a few years. Fred Schoch, the executive director of the Head of The Charles, was looking for a new race to bring an injection of energy and talent to the regatta.
"I wanted to make an event that could draw some of the best international talent to Boston," Schoch said, and he has been proven correct with boats from Spain, Australia and Ukraine joining a half-dozen USRowing boats in the men's and women's field this weekend. Schoch also understood the pairs boat is one that stirs great passions in the athletes who row it.
"Many of us enjoy this race," Kelsey Reelick said. "Molly and I love rowing it together. We've been training for a while, so we have the trust in each other that this course demands."
Reelick raced in the pairs exhibition last year. This time around, the field will be bigger and the competition more intense, and that will make it all the more special.
"It's such a great race, and a very meaningful one to us rowers," Reelick concluded. "Thank you to the directors for putting this on for us! It's truly a fun one."
The Men's Elite Pairs and the Women's Elite Pairs begin at 2:12 p.m. and 2:31 p.m., respectively, on Saturday.
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