Friday Quad-Feature Video Of The Week: Racing on Both Sides of the Pond (and Down Under)
The first of today's videos comes to us from the Netherlands, where the Heineken Roeivierkamp 2014 took place recently in the heart of Amsterdam. The video features some slick editing, nice shots of rowing, and a few interviews for those of you in the audience who can speak Dutch. It's also another window into how European regatta organizers take advantage of urban settings, and combine different distances and events to keep things fresh an interesting. At the Heineken Roeivierkamp, more than 400 crews (eights and quads) raced over four distances (5k, 2.5k, 750m, and 250m). You can read more about it on the official website of the Heineken Roeivierkamp here.
Meanwhile, in Derby, Connecticut...
Yale took on Brown last weekend, and the Bulldogs once again showed solid early season speed against a very strong Brown program. The Bulldogs edged the Bears in the men's varsity eight (above) by a little over two seconds, with the same result in the second varsity eight. The Brown third varsity prevented a sweep, defeating Yale by roughly a length. Read a recap of the dual meet via the Brown Athletics website here.
Still further to the west, the 2014 Newport Regatta featured a matchup of traditional rivals that serves as something of a mini-preview for Crew Classic, with Cal Cup teams UCLA, UCI, UCSB, OCC, USD, USC, and SDSU going toe to toe in the men's varsity eight. While the hometown favorites Orange Coast were in a strong position for much of the race, the Toreros of USD sprinted away to victory, with last year's Cal Cup champions UCSB edging the Anteaters of UCI into third place by half a second. These west coast crews will test their speed against the likes of Purdue, Notre Dame, Oklahoma City, and Grand Valley State in San Diego in just over a week's time.
Last, but certainly not least, the California women have been in action Down Under at the 2014 Sydney International Rowing Regatta, and the results have been...impressive. The Golden Bears got things started with a bang when Kendall Chase and Ingvild Roenningen took second overall in the U23 women's pair. The Bears have since added second place finishes in the women's eight (behind a crew of Australian national team athletes, competing as MUBC) and the U23 straight four. Read more about it via Cal Athletics.
Thanks very much to Olivier for the video submission! Have a submission for 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com, send us your suggestions via Twitter, or get in touch via our Facebook or Google+ pages.
-RR