THOMAS Carter, one of Upper Thames Rowing Club’s most promising new young scullers did superbly well in the prestigious Head of the Charles River Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts last weekend.
In a field of 58 entries in the club single sculls event ,he came second to take the silver medal in a time of 19 minutes 8 seconds, only 6 seconds behind the winner Philip Kaiser of the Charles River Association, USA.
Upper Thames Rowing Club also sent a composite women’s crew to compete in the Masters category of the Head of the Charles at an average age of 40 years or more. Boating from Harvard they set off in 28th position behind the other 27 crews entering this event and overtaking five crews along the way finishing third. The crew was Jenny Page (bow), Helen Mangan (UTRC), Jo Wilby (UTRC), Nicola Dale (TSS), Gurli Medcalf (Staines), Claire MacIntosh (TSS), Kate Grose (TSS), Pauline Bird (TSS) at stroke and Brendan Desmond (TSS) cox.
The Head of the Charles Regatta, the world’s largest two-day rowing event, was first held on October 16 1965 in Boston, Massachusetts, on the Charles River. The difficult three-mile course runs through the centre of the city of Boston, through seven arched bridges and past the famous Boston and Harvard universities.
The race was established by members of the Cambridge Boat Club in Boston with the advice of Harvard University’s sculling instructor, Ernie Arlett, the then world famous English sculler and coach.
Arlett proposed that a Head of the River race similar in tradition to races held in his native England, be held on the Charles River. Winners of such races receive the honorary title of “Head of the River” or, in this case, “Head of the Charles.”
This year more than 7,500 oarsmen and women, including several world and Olympic champions such as Mahe Drysdale (Beijing bronze medallist) and the U.S. women’s Olympic gold medal eight, came from all over the world to compete in 55 different race events.
The regatta grew to a two-day event in 1997 and now attracts up to 300,000 spectators during the October weekend.
Meanwhile, back in England, the Weybridge Silver Sculls was raced over the same weekend and was keenly contested. Three members of Upper Thames Rowing Club’s junior squad entered and they won two events, came second in a third event and third in a fourth.
Sam Mottram won the men’s J14 single sculls by a margin of 45 seconds — the same margin by which his brother Jamie had destroyed the opposition in the J12 sculls at Evesham two weeks ago. Then, with Elliot Stokes, a newcomer to the Upper Thames junior squad, Sam also won the J14 double sculls by some 18 seconds,
Jamie Mottram missed out in the J13 single sculls managing only second place while Elliot came third in the J14 single sculls.
The Weybridge Silver Sculls is the oldest sculling head of the river on the non-tidal (above Teddington Lock) reaches of the Thames, having been founded in 1956.
Many famous scullers have won the Silver Sculls trophy, including Sir Steve Redgrave, Guy Pooley (four times), Chris Baillieu, Dan Topolski and Tim Crooks. The event was expanded a few years ago to include double sculls as well as coxed quadruple sculls for junior boys and girls.
Published on 27 October 2008
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