RowingRelated

Oxford University racing the Head of the River Fours (Photo courtesy of Mike DiSanto) Harvard alum Mike DiSanto , who recently returned from a trip to New Zealand for the Gallagher Great Race , is back and training once again with Oxford University Boat Club —and, evidently, it's going well. DiSanto and his teammates turned a lot of heads on the Thames a week ago with their performance in the men's elite four with coxswain—an event that they won, while placing ninth among all crews (yes, in a field that included quads and straight fours). The following is the first dispatch from Mike for RR about his training and racing with OUBC, with more to come as winter looms.

This week's pair of featured videos comes to us from Hammersmith Bridge, London, where Dickie Bannenberg was kind enough to camp out for the Head of the River Fours over the weekend. The videos show the first 120 crews between them—a field that included a number of Olympians, national team members (from various countries), and sterling results on the Tideway. The talk of the town following the race was the performance of the Oxford and Cambridge crews competing—the Light Blue and Dark Blue men and women all turned in strong races over the Boat Race course (albeit in reverse), setting the stage for the biggest and best Boat Race of them all this spring, with the women's programs competing over the same distance and historic stretch of the Thames as the men for the first time. So far, it looks like the Dark Blues are well positioned to repeat their dominant performances last year, with the top crew from OUBC (stroked by 2012 Olympic bronze medalist and 2014 world champion...

DiSanto (fourth from left) and the Harvard crew (Photo courtesy Mike DiSanto) Last weekend, the 2014 Gallagher Great Race took over the Waikato River, and pitted local favorite Waikato University against a Harvard crew in the men's eight race for the Harry Mahon Memorial Cup. While Harvard managed an early lead, a clash led to an ejection in the Waikato boat; the race was restarted, and following the restart, the hometown crew got the better of the Crimson. Strangely, it wasn't the first time that a Harvard entry had faced a penalty and a restart in the Gallagher Great Race, as, controversially, the race was stopped and restarted in 2007 (that time, the Waikato crew made a successful protest saying that the leading Harvard crew had impeded their progress , resulting in a restart and another Waikato win). Here, Mike DiSanto brings us up to speed on what went down in New Zealand. RR: The last time that Harvard visited for the Gallagher Great Race in 2007, there was a cont...