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.

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