Cambridge Eight Beats Knapkova At Prague Mayor's Eights

However absurd the title above may sound, it was reality on Friday, 20 September: in a race of varsity eights, the crew of the British university competed against men's lineups representing a number of Czech universities and colleges. One of them, of Prague's Charles University, was reinforced by the Olympic champion in women's single sculls, Mirka Knapková. The race was taken by the Czech Technical University followed by Cambridge, the Czech University of Life Sciences, Charles University, and Prague University of Economics, respectively.

Video from the finals of the main race at Prague Mayor's Eights regatta on Sunday, 22 September

Knapková said the men's varsity one-kilometre race was rowed in the fastest pace she ever had to cope with in her life. "The boat runs in a different way and lets you feel the strength and speed. But then it is remarkably harder in the single - it makes you think the boat is standing still", told the top Czech female rower the Lidovky.cz news website, affiliated with the Czech nationwide daily Lidové noviny.

Postponed from the originally planned June term due to flooding, the Prague Mayor's Eights rowing regatta has marked the 100th edition this year. It features an open race of men's eights and a number of accompanying races of eights and singles. Next to the varsity race, the Cambridge boat had entered the main competition of men's eights on a two-kilometres' distance too but did not make it through semifinals. As in previous years, the victory went to Dukla, a Prague-based elite club and men's national rowing team hub sponsored by the Czech Ministry of Defense.

UPDATE 1: The Cambridge Lineup

According to information from the team of Primatorky.cz website, the British university took part with the following crew: Jason Lupatkin, Joshua Hooper, Steve Dudek, A. Jacob, M. Jackson, Helge Gruetjen, Henry Hoffstot, Michael Thorp, cox Rosemary Ostfeld.

UPDATE 2: The FISA website came on 2 October with a news article on Prague Mayor's Eights. The text is largely based on the article above and contributions submitted by the present writer.