The Sydney Uni men’s Eight flew into Hamilton yesterday preparing to defend their title in The Gallagher Great Race – a title wrested under the final bridge of last year’s race as Sydney crossed early to the eastern bank and held the Waikato Uni champions in mid river for a rare visitor victory. Nick Purnell and Ed de Carvalho flew in directly from Korea where they have been representing Australia in the 2013 World Championships while Nick Wheatley, Tom Sacre, Kit Cunningham-Reid, Jack Hargreaves, Hamish Playfair and Pete Koster along with Coach Mark Prater have spent the last two weeks preparing n Sydney after representing Australia at the U23 Worlds. Sasha Belonogoff, who was in the 2013 Aus Double Scull, will take a rest for this event and our cox from 2012 Toby Lister will make way for Will Raven to do the steering. Will has guided the last 3 Sydney Uni men’s eights to victory in The Australian Boat Race.
The lead up week sees training, an erg challenge for racing stations and a few public lead up events. As well the All Blacks will be in town for a Test against the Pumas on 7th October and will take part in Ruck n Row promotion with an All Black rowing session.
The main events are Sunday NZ time:
The Bryan Gould Cup – Women’s Eights – Sydney v Waikato v Melbourne
The Harry Mahon Trophy – Men’s Eights – Sydney v Waikato v Cambridge