I can't really believe the season is over for the Trinity rowing teams. The day started with the Graves brothers battling the US Olympic 2X and bowed out by a little over a length - a phenomenal achievement for two rowers who have so recently been involved in collegiate sweep rowing.I had the privilege of riding in the Argonaut launch for the final of the Temple Challenge Cup and filming the event. In the lead up, as the boat was cleaned and the boys were finishing their warm up and pre-race talk I said to Coach Gluckman that I wish we could bottle up this feeling because it felt like Christmas morning...where there was such great expectation I can only imagine a few times where you can feel that alive.
Amidst strong rain, both crews went off aggressively and we had a pretty severe bobble that buried the starboard riggers and took the 1V out of the rhythm slightly but made a really strong effort from the Barrier to Fawley to make up the distance. UWO was able to make some pretty excellent responses to our pushes and eventually drew it out to a little over 2 lengths. Considering the youth of the men's varsity, where there were only 2 seniors in the crew I would expect a lot of continued improvement next season. Tremendous congratulations to the Western eight for rowing an incredible regatta - their bladework, fitness, and determination throughout the regatta was impressive.
Congratulations to Henry Palmer in the Leander Ladies' Plate crew who beat a very good Dutch crew rowing aggressively the whole way down the course. They took an early lead on the Dutch rowing 2-3 beats higher at 37-39 spm and defended a strong middle push by the Dutch before extending their lead in the last 50 strokes of the race. I thought it may have been the gutsiest row I've seen by a high level eights crew at the regatta.
Also, congrats to Andy Liverman who won the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup for intermediate 4Xs beating a very slick British lightweight quad. On the plane tomorrow at 10:55 AM with a 7:00 AM pickup from Henley...I'll have some pictures to post later on and hopefully some video of the racing.
