All star women’s eight comes together

Following the formation of the Great Eight, some of the top women rowers across nations are joining together to race in an eight at the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston, United States. Titled the Super Shark 8+ in reference to one of their sponsors, Hudson Boats, stroke of the Dutch women’s eight Femke Dekker came up with the idea.

“The idea was Femke’s as a fun, 'let's row together once in our lives' boat,” says member of the crew, American Susan Francia. “She actually approached Erin Cafaro and I as we were exchanging gear after all of the racing at the World Championships was over.” Francia, along with Cafaro, was part of the United States 2009 World Champion crew in the eight and pair.

Dekker also asked the British 2009 silver medal double of Anna Bebington and Annie Vernon and New Zealand’s top single sculler, Olympian Emma Twigg, as well as Canadian Olympian and World Champion Jane Rumball and coxswain of the US World Champion eight, Katelin Snyder. Nienke Kingma of the Netherlands will also be in the crew. Kingma, along with Dekker, were silver medallists in the 2008 Beijing Olympic eight.

Twigg and Rumball are making the most of the new Head of the Charles rule that allows racing in more than one event, and they will be racing in a second event, against each other in the championship single. Both Twigg and Rumball have raced in this event before. Twigg is the current course record holder in the double and Rumball is the former record holder, also in the double.

Francia says the crew will get to row just once together before racing. “We’ve joked that we're 'professionals' and we hope to adjust to each other quickly. If worse comes to worst, we'll at least have a good time.”

The Super Shark 8+ will race in the championship eight, the final race of the Head of the Charles, on 18 October, against the United States eight (minus Francia, Cafaro and Snyder), Canada (minus Jane Rumball) and possibly Great Britain. There will also be competition from top American collegiate crews.

Head of the Charles executive director, Fred Schoch says they are all psyched that the boat has come together. “I think the idea took seed after they heard the men’s boat was coming to Boston. They said, ‘why not a women’s version?’”

“It will be interesting racing our teammates, but this is a fun event, and at the end of the day we're all friends, across all nations and boats,” says Francia who is keeping any winning expectations in check. “Our goal is to have fun and help promote athleticism and friendship in women's rowing.”

The men’s Great Eight, which is made up of the best single scullers in the world, has had one change to the line-up. Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway is unable to make it and will be replaced by top American single sculler Warren Anderson. Tufte remains in Norway as his wife is expecting their second child.

Head of the Charles website.

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