Great8 reunite for American head race

Drawn from the best scullers in the world, Alan Campbell (GBR), Tim Maeyens (BEL), Marcel Hacker (GER), Mahe Drysdale (NZL), Olaf Tufte (NOR), Ondrej Synek (CZE), Iztok Cop (SLO) and Lassi Karonon (SWE) are back in the boat together for the October 2009 Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, United States.

Earlier this year the crew (minus an injured Karonen) united for the first time when Campbell’s coach Bill Barry invited the scullers to race in Great Britain’s Head of the River Race. Barry had planned the compilation of this crew of top scullers for three years believing that top scullers would make a fast eight. In March 2009 the opportunity lent itself. The eight went on to win the Head of the River race after a week of rowing together.

Executive Director of the Head of the Charles Fred Schoch is enthusiastic about the Great8 racing in the regatta’s championship men’s eight event and sees it as a highlight of the two-day regatta. The regatta has also added a rule to accommodate these athletes rowing in two events. Athletes who rowed at the 2009 World Rowing Championships will be able to compete in two events – one sweep, one sculling. It is likely that these eight athletes will add a race in the championship single or championship double to their Head of the Charles repertoire.

Drysdale, a regular competitor in the single at the Head of the Charles, has already expressed his desire to race in the single and as an added incentive, the winner will go home with a Hudson single.

The Hudson “Great White 1x give-away” in the men’s and women’s championship single event, is to honour the official boat club of the event, the Cambridge Boat Club currently celebrating their Centennial Anniversary. The championship single is to be raced at the end of the first day with the eight racing the next day.  

The athletes will arrive a week before the event and conduct a learn-to-row clinic, most likely to be for adaptive rowers at Boston’s community rowing centre, CRI. There will also be times for autograph signing during the race weekend.

The Great8 plus their coxswain and coach (Bill Barry) will be flown to Boston by sponsor Concept2 and be lodged at the official Head of the Charles hotel, the four-star Liberty Hotel.

Although entries in the championship men’s eight are still open, it is likely that the Great8 will face an international crew from France as well as the Unites States national team crew. Great Britain’s Leander Club is sending a crew full of international rowers and the top American university crews will compete.

The Head of the Charles in Boston, USA is an annual head race that covers a winding 4.8km course on the Charles River with seven bridges to be navigated. The event attracts 7,500 competitors including many international teams as well as a huge turn-out from United States universities. The popularity of the event means that a lottery system is used to decide on entries with those who came in the top five per cent of the winners in each event earning a guaranteed entry for the following year.

Head of the Charles website: www.hocr.org