The Great Eight

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (August 17, 2009) – The 45th Head Of The Charles Regatta, taking place on the Charles River in Boston and Cambridge, Mass., October 17 and 18, will feature one of the greatest fields of elite rowers that this legendary Regatta has ever assembled, it was announced by race organizers today.

All six of the finalists from the 2008 Olympic Single Sculls event – Olaf Tufte (gold medal), Ondrej Synek (silver medal), Mahe Drysdale (bronze medal), Tim Maeyens (fourth), Alan Campbell (fifth) and Lassi Karonen (sixth) – will be joined by 2008 Olympic Double Sculls finalist Iztok Cop and Marcel Hacker, winner of the petite final at the 2008 Olympics – in an eight-man sweeps boat dubbed the "Great Eight."

The Great Eight will compete in the Championship Men's Eights race at the Head Of The Charles against a field that is scheduled to also have national team boats representing the United States, Great Britain and France.

The Regatta also announced that it will change its one-race rule that, until now has allowed each competitor to only register for and compete in one event in the Head Of The Charles. For Championship and Lightweight Events only, any rower who competes in the 2009 World Rowing Championship in Ponzan, Poland, will be allowed to compete in both a sculling boat (single or double) and a sweep boat (fours, eights).

"We've relaxed the one-race rule this year to give not only these world-class athletes the opportunity to compete in both sculling and sweeps events, but any of the rowers from this year's World Championship," said Schoch. "This will add excitement for the fans and all of the rowers involved as it gives them another chance to see some of the best rowers in the world battle the challenging Charles River course not once, but twice."

The Championship Eight is Sunday at 4pm.

2008 Boys Lightweight Results

All times are relative to race conditions...

Sectionals
No Lightweight Events

NY States
4:56 - St. Joseph's Collegiate
4:57 - Chaminade
4:58 - Canisius
4:59 - Pittsford
5:07 - Fayetteville-Manlius
5:08 - FDR HS

Stotesbury Cup
4:48 - St. Joseph's Prep
4:50 - Moorestown HS
4:53 - St. Francis
4:53 - Ocean City
5:02 - La Salle
5:02 - St. Augustine

SRAA Nationals
4:20 - Ocean City
4:24 - La Salle
4:26 - Winter Park
4:27 - St. Augustine
4:29 - Canisius
4:33 - Holy Spirit

2008 Boys 1V Results

All times are relative to race conditions...

Sectionals
4:57 - Burnt Hills
5:04 - Shaker
5:05 - Saratoga
5:23 - Niskayuna

NY States
4:41 - Burnt Hills
4:46 - Chaminade
4:50 - Fairport
4:58 - Shaker
5:01 - Brighton
5:05 - Liverpool
5:05 - Pittsford
5:08 - Bay Shore HS
5:10 - Newburgh Free Academy
5:13 - Cascadilla
5:14 - Wappingers
5:27 - Niskayuna

Stotesbury Cup
4:33 - St. Joseph's Prep
4:36 - Winter Park
4:41 - St. Augustine
4:46 - Holy Spirit
4:47 - Mainland
4:52 - La Salle

SRAA Nationals
4:29 - Winter Park
4:32 - Holy Spirit
4:33 - Central Catholic
4:33 - New Trier
4:34 - St. Augustine
4:34 - St. Mary
4:35 - Gonzaga
4:38 - Thomas Jefferson
4:39 - Burnt Hills
4:40 - La Salle
4:41 - Mainland
4:45 - Yorktown

2008 Boys Junior Varsity Results

All times are relative to race conditions...

Sectionals
No Junior Varsity Events

NY States
4:50 - Canisius
4:55 - Chaminade
4:59 - St. Anthony's A
5:50 - St. Anthony's B
5:06 - Our Lady of Lourdes
5:27 - Fordham Prep

Stotesbury Cup
4:47 - St. Joseph's Prep
4:53 - Chaminade
4:57 - La Salle
5:00 - Bonner
5:07 - Shipley
5:10 - Thomas Jefferson HS

SRAA Nationals
4:22 - Canisius
4:24 - Chaminade
4:26 - Upper Arlington
4:27 - Bonner
4:28 - La Salle
4:37 - St. Ignatius

2008 Boys 2V Results

All times are relative to race conditions...

Sectionals
5:17 - Burnt Hills
5:21 - Saratoga
6:05 - Burnt Hills

NY States
4:58 - Chaminade
5:11 - Burnt Hills
5:14 - Fairport
5:25 - Chaminade
5:32 - Bay Shore
5:34 - Liverpool

Stotesbury Cup
4:44 - St. Joseph's Prep
4:49 - Chaminade
4:49 - Winter Park
4:49 - La Salle
4:56 - Holy Spirit
5:04 - Gonzaga

SRAA Nationals
4:20 - Chaminade
4:23 - Holy Spirit
4:24 - Winter Park
4:26 - La Salle
4:27 - Gonzaga
4:32 - Ocean City

Boat Race Crews Announced

Oxford and Cambridge Boat Clubs have unveiled the crew line-ups to contest this year’s Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging, which will take place on Sunday 29 March at 15:40.

Cambridge Head Coach, Chris Nilsson, has five returning 2008 Blues including American Ryan Monaghan who is joined by British crew members Henry Pelly, the CUBC President, plus Tom Ransley, Peter Marsland and cox Rebecca Dowbiggin (2007 & 2008). “I’ve pushed them harder on occasions than they have been pushed before,” said Nilsson. “But we had to go there and they now know what they are capable of. We are up against a much stronger boat but I still believe we can win.”

Cambridge
Bow - Rob Weitemeyer
2 - Henry Pelly
3 - Deaglan McEachern
4 - Peter Marsland
5 - Ryan Monaghan
6 - Hardy Cubasch
7 - Tom Ransley
Stroke - Silas Stafford
Cox - Rebecca Dowbiggin

Sean Bowden, Head Coach at Oxford has chosen a global crew for this year’s Race and has three returning Blues - Beijing Olympic silver medallist and OUBC President Colin Smith (2004 & 2006) together with two internationals who are once again taking up the Dark Blue oars, Ante Kušurin (2007) from Croatia and Michal Plotkowiak (2007) from Poland. “I believe that we have one of the strongest Oxford crews in years” said Bowden. “We have a technically strong and experienced crew but we still recognise the challenge that Cambridge represent this year and we are continuing to push ourselves to prepare for the Race.”

Oxford
Bow - Michal Plotkowiak
2 - Colin Smith
3 - Alex Hearne
4 - Ben Harrison
5 - Sjoerd Hamburger
6 - Tom Solesbury
7 - George Bridgewater
Stroke - Ante Kušurin
Cox - Colin Groshong

Cambridge currently lead the overall series 79-74, with one Race declared a dead-heat since 1829.

Courtesy of http://www.theboatrace.org/