Cambridge vs 'World Super Eight'

On the 18th March, Cambridge's Blue Boat faced (on paper) one of the fastest eights that the world could assemble. The eight contained the 6 finallists from the single scull event at the Beijing Olympic games, and then two other former Olympic scullers.

Cambridge began the first row against the world's leading scullers with a strong start at a rating of around 44 strokes per minute. After the first minute the Light Blues were up by more than three quarters of a length. At around 1:40 minutes Cambridge were warned by the umpire, but the warning was followed by a clash by Craven Cottage.

At two minutes Cambridge were ahead by two thirds of a length and reached the Mile post in 3:27 minutes. By four minutes, they were ahead by almost a length. The Tideway Scullers then came back by Harrods, but were held off until the finish at Hammersmith by Cambridge who won in 6:33 minutes.

For the second row starting from Putney again, Tideway Scullers were up by almost a third of a length at the minute mark. But at two minutes, the two crews were level going past Craven Cottage. At three minutes, the Tideway Scullers were up by half a length and by the Mile post they were up by nearly one length in a time of 3:31 minutes. At four and a half minutes, Tideway Scullers led by just over a length, but Cambridge came back to be two thirds of a length down by the finish at Hammersmith.

Coach Chris Nilsson said that he was happy with the fixture result overall and that Cambridge had taken it up to another level since the Leander fixture on the 13 March.

This super eight will be raced under Tideway Scullers in the Eights Head of the River Race on the 21 March winning the race by 4 seconds over second placed crew Leander.

Bow - Tim Maeyens (BEL)
Alan Campbell (GBR)
Lassi Karonnen (SWE)
Marcel Hacker (GER)
Mahe Drysdale (NZ)
Olaf Tufte (NOR)
Ondrej Synek (CZE)
Iztok Cop (SLO)

Cox - Ali Williams (GBR)