A crew made up of some of the world’s best rowers, competing for a west London club, beat the best in Britain in dramatic fashion in Saturday’s Fullers Head of the River Fours on the Thames.
The rivals started one after the other in a time-trial format but the international stars, featuring British Olympic bronze medallist Alan Campbell and rowing for Chiswick club Tideway Scullers School, overtook a crew of GB squad members three minutes into the race, going on to win by a resounding 25 seconds in 18 minutes, 22 seconds.
The top crews in the 500-boat event normally have to wait for timekeepers to announce the winner but there was little doubt as to who would take top spot once Tideway Scullers passed the Brits, rowing for Henley’s Leander Club.
Campbell joined double world champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic, Valent Sinkovic from Croatia and young sculling star Aleksander Aleksandrov of Azerbaijan in a display of power and local guile, beating the British boat to the fastest water on the twisting course.
“We had a good strategy for the race: start close to Leander and catch them,” Synek told blogger Martin Cross afterwards. “It was easy because we caught them before Barnes Bridge. Then it was our race.”
Campbell, who finished one place behind Synek in the single sculls at the London Olympics, added: “I really enjoyed sitting behind Valent and Ondrej. I probably got a lot more from it than they did. We had a short period of time and we made it work really well.”
Alex Gregory, who won Olympic gold in the coxless four at London 2012, was part of the beaten Leander crew.
He tweeted: “Never ideal to get overtaken but @tidewaysculler [Campbell] and his men were just too quick! Well done boys.”
Maida Vale’s Constantine Louloudis – who won Olympic bronze in 2012 before taking time away from international racing – finished seventh overall in an outstanding Oxford University coxed four, striking the first blow of the 2014 season against Boat Race rivals Cambridge.
The light blues had three fours in the top 30, though. The Boat Race takes place over the reverse course on 6 April.
Leander were a class apart in the women’s events. Their top crew, featuring world junior champion Jess Leyden, won by 20 seconds from another Leander boat.
Two Oxford University women’s crews were faster than the best of five fielded by Cambridge as the two universities prepare for the Women’s Boat Race on 30 March 2014. The event joins the men on the Thames in London in 2015.
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This post was last modified on 01/12/2013