Crew shoots breeze

Canadian women reconnect, and roll

Sweet revenge. Sort of.

The Canadian women's championship eights crew finished in fourth place at the Beijing Olympics behind the US, Dutch, and Romanian boats, respectively.

But yesterday, with a cool, gusty breeze chopping up the Charles River, the entire Olympic crew rowed its London Training Center entry from Canada (16 minutes 2.507 seconds) to a convincing 12-plus-second win over the Dutch team, ASR Nereus (16:14.964) at the Head of the Charles Regatta.

Half the Dutch crew also rowed at the Beijing Games.

The Yale eight was third at 16:25.331.

In last year's Head of the Charles, US Rowing earned a three-peat by lopping a huge 18-second margin off the course record. But this year, rowing with a developmental team, US Rowing settled for fifth place, a half-minute behind the Canadians.

Holding the No. 1 start position in the 3-mile race, the Americans started at the usual 15-second interval ahead of the Canadian boat, but their tradition rivals blew past them before the first bridge near the BU Boathouse.

Once past the US team, the Canadians never were threatened and set a brisk pace despite winds that gusted to more than 20 miles per hour.

"Once we got by the US," said Darcy Marquardt, who rows in the seventh position, "we had a straight shot right up the course. We could see the chase unfolding down the course and our feeling was, just keep pushing as hard as we could."

Marquardt said her team knew the Dutch boat probably would be its strongest competition, but the advantage of being ahead of the fleet and the steering ability of coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie gave the Canadians the advantage.

The Canadians said they wanted to remember one of their most ardent sponsors, Glen Davis, who died two years ago.

"We wanted to keep his memory alive," said Marquardt, "so halfway through the race, we did a power 10 - a 10 for Glen."

A power 10 is an attack device in which a crew takes 10 of its most powerful strokes, usually in trying to pass another boat.

The teammates said they had not rowed together since Beijing. Rowing this race, they said, was largely for enjoyment.

"We've been really looking forward to coming and racing here," said Marquardt. "Last night we had a little team meeting and it was all laughs and reconnecting. We love coming to Boston. This kind of puts a cap on our season."

In the men's championship fours, the gusty wind that nearly blew the Yale boat into the Eliot Bridge abutment at full speed spared US Rowing (15:57.344), which repeated as champions by nipping Wisconsin (16:06.219).

Last year's title was the first for US Rowing's priority boat since 2004 and its fifth overall at this regatta. Stanford University was third (16:13.553).

According to US coxswain Ned DelGuercio, the conditions "were pretty extreme" and the crew had a hard time getting settled.

"We spent the first few minutes trying to find our rhythm," he said. "There were some distractions with the wind and waves. But by the Powderhouse stretch [the long straightaway after the BU Bridge], we found our natural rhythm and were going well. We expected Wisconsin to be strong, but we are always expected to row well, and so we just kept pounding."

David Banks, who rowed bow for the US team, said a large part of performance is poise.

"It's so easy to get distracted with all the wind and boats crashing around you," he said. "But you just have to stay composed, stay within yourself and in your own boat. And then you're racing your race. That was what we were able to do."