Head race turns too rough for rowing

Rowing’s weather gods were playing tricks last weekend for the annual Head of the River Race on the River Thames in Great Britain. The water appeared just good enough for the 420 boats to launch en masse and head for the start line but then turned increasingly worse.

Some boats had as far as 7km of rowing just to get to the start, by which stage many of the boats had already taken on water. About 50 crews left the starter’s hands, but the race was soon cancelled as water conditions worsened on some stretches of the river.

Problems were exacerbated after racing cancellation as boats tried to get back to their respective docks or continued to head for the start line. One umpire described the situation to be like a shoal of fish trying to steer around sharks as novice and experienced crews mixed together.

Andrew Ruddle, the race’s honorary secretary, said these kind of conditions were unusual. Ruddle said he had to look back to 1979 when weather caused racing problems, problems that also stimulated the regatta's rule to limit the number of boats to 420.

Three years ago, in 2004, there were also weather problems with racing cancelled one hour before the start time when increasing winds meant that marshalling at the start was impossible.

Unofficial results for this year have been recorded for the first 29 crews. “This,” says Ruddle, “is mainly because of the interest in Cambridge University Boat Club.” The Cambridge crew, that will race in this weekend’s Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, finished first, their presence causing a large amount of media interest.

“It is very unusual for Cambridge to race here. It’s the first time in about 30 years,” says Ruddle.

Leander finished second, four seconds down on Cambridge, with a crew that had many British team members including current World Champions Peter Reed and Alex Partridge. First international crew home, Real CN de Vigo from Spain, finished sixth, while Italy’s Fiame Gialle (including world silver medalists, Luca Agamennoni and Alessio Sartori) were the first sinking casualty.

All athletes were accounted for and although some athletes had to receive medical help, no cases of hypothermia were reported.

Quote of the day (courtesy of the Twickenham Underground), “Cox, just take off your f**king boots and start bailing.”

The Head of the River is raced in men’s eights only (apart from women coxswains) and allows a maximum of 420 boats to race the 7.2km distance.