Video of the Week: The 2011 Jessop-Whittier Cup, San Diego Crew Classic
This week's video comes to us from sunny San Diego, as Crew Classic has seen fit to upload a tremendous amount of racing to its YouTube channel over the past few days and weeks (currently there are 330 races available), and as this weekend marks 2012 edition of Crew Classic. The race posted above is the grand final from the premier women's varsity eight event, the Jessop-Whittier Cup, and features three of the six crews that would later make up the varsity eight grand final at the 2011 NCAA Rowing Championships in May (Cal, Stanford, and USC). Arguably the best female sweep rower in the U.S., Eleanor Logan (who won the fall speed order in Princeton with Caroline Lind in 2011, and who more recently took first at NSR I in the W2- with fellow 2008 Olympic champion Erin Cafaro), sits in the six seat of the Cardinal eight, with GB talent Michelle Vezie in stroke, and 2011 U23 world champion Grace Luczak in the five seat, in an eight loaded with elite talent. The Cal boat boasts Kara Kohler in the six seat (currently training with the national team for a shot at London), while USC's crew is stroked by junior, U23 and senior international Ivana Filipovic of Serbia, who will return to San Diego this weekend along with the Trojan women to defend titles in the varsity eight and varsity four events from last year. Stay tuned to RR for our picks and predictions for the 2012 event as we draw closer to the weekend of racing.
(NB: If you are keen to fast forward, the race starts at 3:15 into the video.)
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-RR