Rowing Video Of The Week: Great Britain's Grand Challenge

Germany races Great Britain for the Grand Challenge Cup (Screen capture)

This week's video comes to us from the banks of the Thames River, and looks back at the final of the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last July.

Not only does the video offer beautiful, sweeping (yay #rowingpuns) views of the racing from both the water and drones overhead, but also the narrator is none other than Olympic champion Alex Gregory of the Great Britain men's eight, who gives his insight into what was going through the collective mind of his crew as they lined up at the start last summer.



Earlier in the year, the Germans—the reigning Olympic champions in the eight—had gotten the better of the British crew at the European championships in Poznan. However, more recently, the Brits had won a narrow victory over the Germans at the second World Rowing Cup. The stage was set for a great battle, and this time, once again, the GB crew had enough to hold off Germany, as they would for the rest of the season in 2015.

Still, it's a rivalry we're looking forward to watching in the coming Olympic year, in what may be another very tightly packed men's eight field in Rio. As I wrote for ROWING Magazine's online coverage following the men's eight final in London:
The last of the A Finals on Wednesday was the men's eight, again featuring very competitive crews from Australia, Great Britain, the U.S., and Germany, as well as defending Olympic champions Canada, and The Netherlands. The German men's eight, undefeated throughout this quadrennium, got out to a typically fast start, but were very closely tracked by Great Britain. The field remained tightly packed throughout the race, despite the headwind, and for much of the first 1500 meters it looked like a battle between the Brits and the Germans for gold. However, following a huge move from the GB crew to take a slight lead, the Germans responded with one of their own, and quickly regained a two-seat advantage over the home team, pulling the U.S. and Canada up with them. 
In the last 250m, the Canadian's made a tremendous push, gliding into a 'clear' second place, while Brits continued to fade—as the crews approached the line, there was nothing in it between the U.S., The Netherlands, GB, and Australia, but the GB crew managed to hold on for bronze by just 0.30 seconds over the surging U.S. eight. The Netherlands finished just 0.24 behind Team USA, with Australia sixth, 0.05 of a second back of the Dutch. The Germans won in a time of 5:48.75, with all six boats separated by a total of 3.12 seconds across the line.
It doesn't get much closer than that.

In fact, it was the closest men's eight A Final, first through sixth place, in Olympic history—to find comparable parity, you have to go back to the 1932 Olympics, when all crews finished within 3.2 seconds of one another in a four-boat final.

Have a submission for 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email, send us your suggestions via Twitter, or get in touch via our Facebook or Google+ pages.

-RR

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

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

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 ...
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

Winter Workouts: Why Do Rowers Fear the Erg?

Image
Op-Ed from the RowingRelated Editorial Staff Friend. Not foe. (Illustration: B. Kitch) I am really frustrated by our sport when it comes to the erg being viewed as a torture device rather than a helpful tool that people can enjoy. This negative mindset, which is extremely contagious, plagues the sport, preventing athletes from training to their potential and possibly serving as one of the reasons that careers in rowing, at every level, are often so short. When compared to other endurance sports, I have not encountered an equal level of disdain for such fundamental mental and physical endurance training. My main problem is that everywhere I turn in the rowing community, whether it's high school rowers, college athletes, or even national team hopefuls, I hear of people dreading the erg. I've never heard about a cross country runner 'dreading' a track workout. True, basketball and football players may dread running wind sprints or other such conditioning acti...
Read more