9 October 2006
Graham Croker
Sydney University’s Men’s VIII achieved a rare feat at the Australian University Rowing Championships held on the Olympic course at Penrith last Saturday, when they won the Oxford and Cambridge Cup for the third year in a row.
In a very tight finish, Sydney University edged out Adelaide University and Melbourne University, with just two seconds covering the three crews at the finish line.
Sydney University first won the “triple” in 1907-08-09 and repeated the effort in 1947-48-49 and 1960-61-62. However, the SUBC crews of 1935-36-37-38 trumped those feats when they won four in a row.
Four members of the 2006 Sydney University VIII joined an exclusive club of university rowers who have won the Oxford and Cambridge Cup three years in a row. Fergus Pragnell, Chris Clyne, Pat Wilson and Andrew Wilson were all members of the winning crews in the event at Lake Barrington, Tasmania, in 2004 and at the Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast in 2005. It was also a first up win for SUBC coach Phil Bourguignon, who joined the club in January this year after completing a year as AIS Scholarship coach. Anchoring the Sydney VIII were 2006 World Under-23 silver medallists in the Four, Pragnell and Clyne. Other members of the eight were cox Marty Rabjohns, Nick Hudson, Damon Hietbrank, Terrence Alfred and Will Chambers.
The eight was the final race on a busy regatta program and an even affair was forecast when the six finalists rowed almost identical times in the heats. But Adelaide started as favourites for the 2006 Cup having come home faster than the Sydney crew over the final 1000 metres of their heat.
The final was rowed in good conditions at Penrith with Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne crossing the opening 500 within two seconds of each other, with Sydney shading Adelaide by 1.6 seconds. Sydney held the same advantage at the 1000m mark and at the 1500m mark only Adelaide and Melbourne remained threats
As SUBC spokesman Chris Noels says, the Sydney crew was laden with experience but also had four members who had not had a “big winter” in terms of training. “The job of Australian Eights cox Rabjohns was to ensure that the crew took advantage of their early pace, knowing that Adelaide would be strong in the second 1000m, “ Noel says.
“As the crews moved towards the 1200m Adelaide were trying to mount challenges which Sydney University covered. Deep into the last 500m Adelaide moved quickly and with excellent timing, precise bodywork and high tempo they quickly cut into Sydney’s lead.”
Noel says that with 100m to go, the margin was down to a third of a length and while Adelaide continued to close the gap in the run to the line, Sydney held their form and did enough to cross just under a quarter of a length ahead. The official margin was just 0.64sec, with Sydney recording a very slick time for this stage of the season of 5:51.76.
Intervarsity rowing has been contested since 1860. The first 10 years saw haphazard competition between Sydney and Melbourne universities before official competition began with Fours between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in 1870. With the donation of the trophy by the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge in 1896, the competition moved to eights and this premier race of university rowing has been held regularly since that time.
In other results from this year’s AUC Rowing, Sydney won the men’s title, Melbourne the women’s and Melbourne won the overall title in a close contest from Sydney and Macquarie.