Double-Feature Video Of The Week: World Rowing Cup II at Eton Dorney



The second World Rowing Cup of the 2013 season was quite the mixed bag, with a few of the top contenders from the 2012 Olympics in action, and showing no signs of tarnish on the armor. The runaway performance of the regatta, as many expected, came from the Kiwi pair, who set a new best time for the World Cup series, just under 6:16. However, in our eyes, the real stories from the racing in Great Britain were in the women's single, lightweight men's four, and lightweight men's double. In the women's single, Eleanor Logan showed that her results in Sydney were no fluke, and was an impressively close third behind two of the top athletes in women's sculling, Emma Twigg and Frida Svensson. Given those kind of results, it's hard to argue with the idea of simply leaving Logan in the single and building a new eight—this may be just what Terhaar has in mind. Meanwhile, on the men's side, former lightweight (and recent RR interviewee) John Graves posted a strong result, finishing ninth overall.



The lightweight men's four saw a new crew, including 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Peter Taylor (then in the LM2x with Storm Uru), take down the 2013 European champions from Denmark in their first match-up of the season. This could be a sign of a great rivalry to come, as New Zealand may have found the right combination here (following a search that began roughly a year ago, and saw them just miss the Olympic Games at the Final Qualification Regatta last summer). Finally, in the lightweight men's double, the Chambers brothers, Peter and Richard, made a very strong case for themselves in their first appearance as a crew at the senior level (that is, as a lightweight double—the brothers raced to silver in the lightweight men's four at the Olympics last year), winning a silver medal. Interestingly enough, these British brothers were matched against two other sets of brothers in the final—perhaps the secret to elite lightweight rowing?

Also as we indicated, the Azerbaijani men's double had a solid regatta, finishing just two tenths of a second from the podium, with the youngster Boris Yotov at stroke—this could be a crew to watch through the quadrennium as they continue to mature and develop. In the women's double, the new-look GB crew of Francis Houghton and Victoria Meyer-Laker pleased the crowd (and their coaches, no doubt) with a comeback win—one wonders how much it will take, however, to convince the staff that this combination is the way forward with Katherine Grainger waiting just off stage.

Switching gears, our Flat Water Tuesday Photo Contest is in full swing! Keep submitting your best shots of crews on glassy water to rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com for a chance at one of 10 advanced  edition copies of Ron Irwin's novel—the contest ends one week from today, so don't delay (or go away, or eat some hay...Adam Sandler reference, anyone?).

Thanks very much to Mike Nicholson for shipping along the video!

Want to suggest the next 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com, send us your suggestion via Twitter (twitter.com/rowingrelated), or get in touch via our Facebook or Google+ pages.

Trending posts this month

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b
Read more

Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? At Marin Rowing Association, Culture is Key

Image
Hands in after training  My alarm goes off—it’s 4:22am.  It’s been a while since I did this. Immediately, I think back to a college dorm room, rolling out of bed and running down the steps to carpool caravan to Marina Del Rey.  Not this time, though. It’s a Tuesday in late September, and I’m heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Greenbrae, California, where I’ll meet with the Marin Rowing Men’s Masters squad. Fortunately, it’s an unusually warm morning—and when I roll in, the boathouse is already buzzing with activity.  Launch time: 5:10. Heading out into the Bay before dawn The Marin Rowing Association program has both men’s and women’s masters boats competing to win at every event they attend. In the fall, that can only mean one thing: The Head Of The Charles .  The boat that Coach Rodrigo Rodrigues and I spend most of our time with is the Grand Masters eight—average age 60+. But that’s just one of five crews that launched with us that morning. Everyone’s up before 4:30am. So, wh
Read more

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States.
Read more

Video Of The Week: Holland Beker 2013

Image
This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland.  As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just ove
Read more

So, are Naked Rowing Calendars a Thing Now?

Image
Warwick rowers are all in again this year (Photo courtesy of Warwick Boat Club)  The phenomenon started four years ago with the Warwick Rowing men's squad. Then, the following year, the Warwick women's team joined the fray. Now, Newcastle University's men and women are back on the naked calendar train. So, the question is, have rowing and naked calendars become a thing? The above video features the 2014-2015 Warwick women's squad—the third edition of the calendar , and, from the looks of it, the raciest. However, perhaps not so racy as that of the 2014-2015 Warwick men (see below). But raciness aside, all four of these teams have chosen worthy charities and have gone "the full monty" to make sure that those causes have received considerable contributions. The Warwick women contribute to Macmillan Cancer Support —a cause for which Warwick reports it has donated some £5,000. The Warwick men? Sport Allies —a charity that combats homophobia in spor
Read more