Princeton University shines on day two at the Charles

Collegiate eights head under one of the seven bridges

Two days of racing on Boston's Charles River for the 41st Head of the Charles (HOCR) saw over 7,500 rowers navigate the 3 mile (4,828 metres) course winding under seven bridges and showing their rowing prowess to 100,000 spectators.

Every year the conditions differ over the three-mile stretch and on Sunday the winding course began with rough head-cross winds mellowing out into calmer waters as the race progressed.

The day featured a large number of university crews from throughout the United States and the strength of collegiate rowing was obvious with rows of university trailers stacked high with mainly eights and fours.

Even more obvious in the strength were the results of the men's championship eight. Defending champions Cambridge University from England, despite having a boat full of Olympic rowers, could not ward off the speed of Princeton University. Coached by Curtis Jordan (FISA Competitive Commission member) Princeton started third behind Cambridge and the Netherlands and at the finish had won by five seconds over Cambridge with the Dutch finishing third.

Princeton's win also came at the expense of Great Britain's Leander club crew which featured Steve Williams, Alex Partridge and Peter Reed of this year's World Champion four. The pink Leander colours have been made famous by members that include five-time Olympic Champion Steve Redgrave and four-time Olympic Champion Matthew Pinsent. Today Leander teammates had to settle for fifth with University of California, Berkley finishing ahead of them in fourth.

Watching the race from Cambridge Boat Club

Princeton further impressed by finishing 35 seconds ahead of this year's World Rowing Championships silver medal crew from Italy.

Sitting in seven seat of the Princeton's crew was Steve Coppola who at the age of 21 is already a World Champion. At 201cm Coppola rowed in this year's US eight that won gold at the World Rowing Championships.

Princeton University women's crew also impressed by finishing second in the last race of the regatta, the women's championship eight. Princeton finished behind the US national team but ahead of London training centre crew, made up of Canadian national team members. University of Virginia also held their own against the US national team by finishing fourth and ahead of the US national training centre's second boat. 

Touted as the biggest two-day regatta in the world HOCR organisers receive twice the number of entries than are accepted (due to space limitations) and year after year fierce rivalries are contested between college crews, club boats, masters rowers and international athletes. This year nearly 1,000 athletes were international and traveled from 14 countries, many as regular HOCR attendees.

Clemson University gets tangled

Organisation of the event has a small group of full-time staff who manage a budget of $US 1 million and gather over 1,000 volunteers to help run the venue and race logistics. The staff also featured in various races. HOCR Executive Director (and FISA Media Commission member) Fred Schoch was spotted on Sunday afternoon coming down the course in a quad while Assistant Director (and lightweight World Champion) Chris Kerber is a regular competitor in his university's alumni eight. 

The two-day regatta featured 52 events with boats starting one at a time at 10 second intervals. Starting order was determined predominantly by last year's results.

Related Links 
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Head of the Charles draws top rowers
2004 Head of the Charles

For a full list of results please go to: www.hocr.org

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