Friday Quad-Feature Video Of The Week: Racing on Both Sides of the Pond (and Down Under)



The first of today's videos comes to us from the Netherlands, where the Heineken Roeivierkamp 2014 took place recently in the heart of Amsterdam. The video features some slick editing, nice shots of rowing, and a few interviews for those of you in the audience who can speak Dutch. It's also another window into how European regatta organizers take advantage of urban settings, and combine different distances and events to keep things fresh an interesting. At the Heineken Roeivierkamp, more than 400 crews (eights and quads) raced over four distances (5k, 2.5k, 750m, and 250m). You can read more about it on the official website of the Heineken Roeivierkamp here.

Meanwhile, in Derby, Connecticut...



Yale took on Brown last weekend, and the Bulldogs once again showed solid early season speed against a very strong Brown program. The Bulldogs edged the Bears in the men's varsity eight (above) by a little over two seconds, with the same result in the second varsity eight. The Brown third varsity prevented a sweep, defeating Yale by roughly a length. Read a recap of the dual meet via the Brown Athletics website here.



Still further to the west, the 2014 Newport Regatta featured a matchup of traditional rivals that serves as something of a mini-preview for Crew Classic, with Cal Cup teams UCLA, UCI, UCSB, OCC, USD, USC, and SDSU going toe to toe in the men's varsity eight. While the hometown favorites Orange Coast were in a strong position for much of the race, the Toreros of USD sprinted away to victory, with last year's Cal Cup champions UCSB edging the Anteaters of UCI into third place by half a second. These west coast crews will test their speed against the likes of Purdue, Notre Dame, Oklahoma City, and Grand Valley State in San Diego in just over a week's time.



Last, but certainly not least, the California women have been in action Down Under at the 2014 Sydney International Rowing Regatta, and the results have been...impressive. The Golden Bears got things started with a bang when Kendall Chase and Ingvild Roenningen took second overall in the U23 women's pair. The Bears have since added second place finishes in the women's eight (behind a crew of Australian national team athletes, competing as MUBC) and the U23 straight four. Read more about it via Cal Athletics.

Thanks very much to Olivier for the video submission! Have a submission for 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com, send us your suggestions via Twitter, or get in touch via our Facebook or Google+ pages.

-RR

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