LEANDER athletes, sponsored by Invesco Perpetual, once again finished last Saturday’s Head of the River Race in London with three crews in the top ten, just as they did one year ago.
But despite this dominant position among the leaders, and with the lightweights retaining their class pennant, there was disappointment for Leander l who lost the overall headship by a narrow margin to Tideway Scullers.
As defending titleholders, the leading Leander crew featured a whole host of Beijing medallists, including Olympic champion Pete Reed, as well as three members of the GB silver medal eight and bronze medallist Steve Rowbotham.
But Scullers had amassed a crew which included all six of the Beijing men’s singles finalists, with the giant Norwegian Olaf Tufte, the double Olympic champion, in the engine room.
As Leander led the 420-boat field off the start of the 4¼ mile course from Mortlake to Putney they rapidly established a clear lead at the head of the field and found themselves rowing in a comparative vacuum down the second half of the course.
But Scullers, who started in fifth place, were able to use the surrounding crews to good effect, and not even a minor collision with the Mile Post marker buoy could stop them taking a four second verdict.
Starting in third place behind Imperial College, Leander ll had to go the long way round to get past the college crew at Hammersmith and finished a further seventeen seconds behind their clubmates, while Leander lll finished ninth and completed the trio of top ten places for the second year in succession.
The Leander lightweight eight squeezed home just under two seconds clear of London to retain their class pennant, while Star and Arrow, composed entirely of development athletes, put in another strong performance to finish in 67th place.
Crews from Henley RC also competed in the Head of the River and the result of their first eight was one of the best for many years considering the number of international crews competing this year.
The crews ahead of Henley l contained many Olympians from both the UK and overseas. Tideway Scullers first eight had six Olympic finalists in the crew and even their second eight had two former Olympians.
The Henley first eight of Mike Ewing, Dan Andrews, Roger Ewing, James Padmore, Olly Bottrell, Matthew Hullett, Rich Thompson, Robbie McGow and cox Sophia Gold covered the course in 18mins, 30secs and were 28th overall making them amongst the fastest club crews eligible for the club events at Henley Royal Regatta.
The second eight finished 79th in 18mins, 58secs which showed the depth of strength at the club.
View more photographs
Published on 30 March 2009
|
