Head Of The Charles Regatta 2019 to Showcase Top Rowing Talent

The Head Of The Charles Regatta (HOCR) announced today the major national and international rowers who are participating in the 2019 Regatta. This year’s highly anticipated competition features more than 11,000 athletes representing 2,300 entries from 24 countries around the word.

The 55th annual Regatta includes a diverse mix of world-class athletes, and the events – particularly the Men’s and Women’s Championship Singles and the Championship Eights – are set to be scorching races.

“We are excited about the intense competition that will be going down on the Charles River this year,” said Fred Schoch, Executive Director of The Head Of The Charles Regatta. “Once again, our events are highly oversubscribed, and the entire weekend of races look to be extremely action-filled.”

Headlining the Women’s Championship Eight category on the national stage are crews from the USRowing Training Center, winners of last year’s Championship Eights event. Collegiate competitors will closely follow with a crew from Stanford University – 2018 Women’s Championship Eights 2nd place finishers, winner of the BNY Mellon Collegiate Trophy and the fastest collegiate program in the event. In addition, returning to race this fall will be the 2019 NCAA National Champion University of Washington which will field two eights in the same event.

The Men’s Championship Eight event will similarly be headlined by the USRowing Training Center, sending two eights of 2020 Olympic hopefuls to compete. Other notable crews include Yale University – 2018 Men’s Championship Eights collegiate winners and last year’s overall National Collegiate Champions.

Rounding out the fields, the Women’s and Men’s Championship Eights events face formidable competition from international crews. Challengers looking to upset the U.S. Women’s crews include rowers from the Netherland’s A.S.R. Nereus and Great Britain’s Tideway Scullers School.

On the men’s side, Dutch crew KNRB, German crew D.R.V. Dortmund and Italian crew Grupo Nautico Fiamme Gialle look to out pace Great Britain’s Oxford Brookes, Henley Royal Regatta winners of the Grand Challenge Cup, Temple Challenge Cup, Stewards Cup, and the Ladies’ Challenge Plate. Great Britain’s Cambridge University also looks to challenge the field coming off their first-place finish at the historic Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race.

The Championship Single races will feature some of the most competitive names in the sport in both the men’s and women’s fields. In the Championship Women’s Single, current HOCR course record holder and nine-time champion of the Women’s Champ Single Sculls Gevvie Stone, a two time Olympian, will vie for a record 10th first-place finish in a tight field. Aiming to dethrone the hometown favorite is Olympian Kara Kohler, bronze medalist in the Women’s Single at this year’s World Championships, held in Austria in August. Other competitors to watch include Cicely Madden, last year’s Women’s Champ Single third-place finisher, Emma Twigg, and 2016 Rio Olympian who finished 4th in the Women’s Pair.

In the men’s field, fourteen-time U.S. National team member Andrew Campbell, a 2016 Lightweight Olympian and current HOCR course record holder in the Men’s Single, along with John Graves, eight-time U.S. National team athlete and the 2018 HOCR third-place finisher in the Men’s Champ Single event, will be competing for the men’s title. Along with Campbell and Graves, the 2018 HOCR Men’s Champ single fourth-place finisher Kevin Meador and 2019 World Rowing Championships silver medalist Sverri Nielsen of Denmark take on the field.

The Head Of The Charles Regatta is one of the world’s most renowned rowing competitions, hosting a variety of events for local and international rowers. The Regatta engages rowers of diverse experience, including Juniors, Olympians, Para and Masters athletes and has become a signature sporting event in New England. It is free to the public and accessible to view from any bridge or shoreline along the three-mile Charles River course. For more information about the event, visit www.hocr.org.

ABOUT HEAD OF THE CHARLES REGATTA

Since its origin in 1965, the Head Of The Charles® Regatta has welcomed the world’s best crew teams to the banks of the Charles River for the ultimate two-day rowing competition. Preparing for an event that attracts over 11,000 athletes and thousands of spectators requires a great deal of preparation. The HOCR consists of a 15 member Board of Directors, six of whom are in charge of race management and overseeing an eleven-member race committee (including two race co-chairs). The race committee meets year-round to discuss the operational and logistical details of the event. They are assisted by 115 leading volunteers on 30 separate committees that begin meeting weekly in the fall. A full-time, professional staff of four, headquartered in the Cambridge Boat Club, works year-round to plan the event, obtain sponsorship and communicate with the rowing community. Head Of The Charles® is a registered trademark of the Cambridge Boat Club, 2 Gerry’s Landing Road, Cambridge, MA. For more information, call Head Of The Charles at (617) 868-6200, email regatta@hocr.org