Australian Boat Race reignites age-old rivalry

The cities of Sydney and Melbourne have always been keen rivals in almost everything – culture, sport, food, music – with each city claiming to be Australia’s best. Rowing took centre stage in this rivalry last weekend on the Yarra River in Melbourne for the annual Oxbridge style Australian Boat Race between Sydney University (SUBC) and Melbourne University (MUBC).

The inaugural race between these two universities took place in 1860 and soon became an important fixture in the Australian racing calendar. With the advent of more interstate competitions and international rowing, the race lost its footing and disappeared. However, in 2009 the head to head was revived to celebrate both clubs reaching the 150 year mark, instigating the start of a new tradition. The new format has both a men’s and women’s race with a balanced mix of current Olympians and Senior B rowers with the race being held on the Yarra River and Sydney Harbour every other year on historic long distance courses, similar to the UK Boat race.

In 2010, the race was held on a stunning course across Sydney Harbour and was won by SUBC men’s crew and MUBC women’s crew. This year’s showdown featured some of Australia’s finest rowers with the course set on the original 4.2 kilometer watercourse, starting in Melbourne Docklands and finishing at the iconic Melbourne University Boathouse.

World medallist Kim Crow of MUBC threw some psychological punches at the pre-race weigh-in by saying “Melbourne has shown who has the best river and the best coffee…  now we are going to show we have the best university rowing club in Australia.”

The men’s race produced an epic thriller and what MUBC President Peter Antonie described as “an emotional roller coaster”. The Melbourne crew, containing Beijing Olympic silver medallists Cameron McKenzie-McHarg and James Marburg, looked to be the stronger crew on paper. The Sydney crew with world medallist Nick Hudson and Australian men’s eight stroke Fergus Pragnell on board arrived to the start line as defending champions and were clearly focused on bringing home the title.

Challenging weather and choppy conditions ensured that the strongest crew would not necessarily be the winner and that the coxswains would play an integral part in the race. The lead was exchanged three times during the race as the crews fought for the best conditions and flow on the narrowing Yarra. Having pegged back an early deficit, MUBC opened up a boat length’s lead on SUBC as they negotiated the six spectator-filled bridges connecting north and south Melbourne. SUBC were far from done however as they drew level and gained another advantage over MUBC as they passed the casino precinct. Willed on by a partisan home crowd, MUBC made their last effort to which SUBC struggled to contain. However the finish line eluded MUBC who lost the titanic struggle by a mere 18 inches (46 cm) after over four kilometers of flat-out racing. SUBC retained their title.

The women’s race was a more clear-cut contest with MUBC, containing a plethora of internationals including Crow and fellow Beijing Olympians Sarah Tait and Robin Selby-Smith along with lightweight international and Empire State Building Run Up champ Alice McNamara, gaining an early advantage on SUBC and dominating proceedings, finishing five boat lengths ahead.

This made it a win each for both universities, stoking the fires for next year’s contest which will be held on the 7.5 kilometer Sydney Harbour course once again. The growth of the Australian Boat Race into a rowing event of global interest is one of the main goals of the organisers. Both cities can boast exceptional courses with iconic backdrops – no doubt both would claim theirs as being the best – and both clubs have a history of producing outstanding talent that ensures spectator friendly, thrilling contests like the 2011 race. Chris Noel, who is one of the key players behind the boat race revival, said that this year’s epic contest “was everything he could have asked for” to reignite this tradition and keep it going for generations of rowers to come.

For crew profiles, race video and photos visit www.australianboatrace.com

Copy thanks to Gearoid Towey