Double-Feature Video Of The Week: World Rowing Cup II at Eton Dorney



The second World Rowing Cup of the 2013 season was quite the mixed bag, with a few of the top contenders from the 2012 Olympics in action, and showing no signs of tarnish on the armor. The runaway performance of the regatta, as many expected, came from the Kiwi pair, who set a new best time for the World Cup series, just under 6:16. However, in our eyes, the real stories from the racing in Great Britain were in the women's single, lightweight men's four, and lightweight men's double. In the women's single, Eleanor Logan showed that her results in Sydney were no fluke, and was an impressively close third behind two of the top athletes in women's sculling, Emma Twigg and Frida Svensson. Given those kind of results, it's hard to argue with the idea of simply leaving Logan in the single and building a new eight—this may be just what Terhaar has in mind. Meanwhile, on the men's side, former lightweight (and recent RR interviewee) John Graves posted a strong result, finishing ninth overall.



The lightweight men's four saw a new crew, including 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Peter Taylor (then in the LM2x with Storm Uru), take down the 2013 European champions from Denmark in their first match-up of the season. This could be a sign of a great rivalry to come, as New Zealand may have found the right combination here (following a search that began roughly a year ago, and saw them just miss the Olympic Games at the Final Qualification Regatta last summer). Finally, in the lightweight men's double, the Chambers brothers, Peter and Richard, made a very strong case for themselves in their first appearance as a crew at the senior level (that is, as a lightweight double—the brothers raced to silver in the lightweight men's four at the Olympics last year), winning a silver medal. Interestingly enough, these British brothers were matched against two other sets of brothers in the final—perhaps the secret to elite lightweight rowing?

Also as we indicated, the Azerbaijani men's double had a solid regatta, finishing just two tenths of a second from the podium, with the youngster Boris Yotov at stroke—this could be a crew to watch through the quadrennium as they continue to mature and develop. In the women's double, the new-look GB crew of Francis Houghton and Victoria Meyer-Laker pleased the crowd (and their coaches, no doubt) with a comeback win—one wonders how much it will take, however, to convince the staff that this combination is the way forward with Katherine Grainger waiting just off stage.

Switching gears, our Flat Water Tuesday Photo Contest is in full swing! Keep submitting your best shots of crews on glassy water to rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com for a chance at one of 10 advanced  edition copies of Ron Irwin's novel—the contest ends one week from today, so don't delay (or go away, or eat some hay...Adam Sandler reference, anyone?).

Thanks very much to Mike Nicholson for shipping along the video!

Want to suggest the next 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com, send us your suggestion via Twitter (twitter.com/rowingrelated), or get in touch via our Facebook or Google+ pages.

Popular posts from this blog

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States.
Read more

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b
Read more

RR Interview: Nick Trojan's New Feature on Yale Men's Rowing

Image
Nick Trojan's latest feature documentary is twice as long as his previous work—but leaves you wanting more, just the same.  There’s a new feature in Nick Trojan’s series, taking an inside look at top-tier college rowing programs in the US. This time, Trojan focused his project on Yale and the legendary coach Steve Gladstone, blending outstanding camerawork with one of rowing’s most compelling stories.  Having uploaded the video to YouTube only two weeks ago, it’s already approaching 70k views. And for good reason.  RR sat down recently to talk through it all with Trojan in an exclusive interview, from origins to development and finally a finished product—as well as what might come next. Here’s what we learned. Navigating shifting waters Elite rower turned filmmaker Nick Trojan’s new feature, titled simply, “Yale Men’s Rowing,” was years in the making.  “The initial idea was to do the same kind of rinse-and-repeat that we had done with Harvard and Cal,” Trojan says, “but I think wha
Read more

Video Of The Week: Holland Beker 2013

This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland. As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just over
Read more

Best Rowing Drills: 5 Favorites of Olympic Champion Esther Lofgren

Image
Lofgren training in the single (Photo courtesy of Esther Lofgren) Olympic gold medalist Esther Lofgren is no stranger to success on the water. In addition to her podium-topping performance with the U.S. women's eight in London, Lofgren also won two world titles (2010, 2011), with her first international medal—a bronze—coming in the women's straight four in 2006. Here, Lofgren shares some insight into the drills that have helped her progress technically along the way.
Read more