Surprise For French lightweight Champions in Grand National à Huit

A club crew made up of rowers from Toulouse, Langon, Lille and Bergerac had something be proud of after their victory at the weekends “Grand National à Huit” race in France. The crew outraced an eight made up of – almost entirely – Olympic and World Championship medallists in the men’s mixed club event.

The second place crew was composed of five of the 2001 World Champion lightweight eight crew -Jean-Christophe Bette, Xavier Dorfman, Pascal Touron, Franck Bussieres and Erwan Peron- joined by the lightweight men’s double crew that won a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympic Games -Thibaud Chapelle and Pascal Touron. Frederic Pinon and Vincent Chatain completed the field as well as double gold medal winning cox Christophe Laittaignant (along with the LM8+, he also coxed the French men’s coxed four to gold in Lucerne this year.)

The upset is not really all that of a surprise though. The winning crew did include Bastien Ripoll and Anthony Perrot who raced the A-Final in the men’s four in the 2001 World Championships, and Toulouse is a club know for producing strong eight crews.

Add to that, the fact that the World Champion lightweight men’s eight crew, who all stem from different regions in France, has not trained together since their race in Lucerne in August.

The winning crew rowed the 4000 metre regatta in 10:58.76 whilst the second placed “boat of champions” clocked in at 11:05.37.

The regatta was raced along the river Marne in the outskirts of Paris starting in Perreux and finishing 4 km further on in Joinville le Pont.

This fourth edition featured 15 events for eights from clubs all over France.