McGill men's victory bittersweet as Queen's women rule, capture annual boat race by one second
(PHOTO BY GARY RUSH)
MONTREAL - The Queen's University rowing team needed the assistance of a tie-breaker to edge McGill by one second and capture the 14th annual McGill-Queen's Challenge boat race held on the Lachine Canal, Sunday.
The unique regatta is the Canadian equivalent of the famed Oxford-Cambridge and Harvard-Yale races. Queen's, which avenged last-year's loss to McGill, now lead the all-time series 8-6 between the archrivals since the head-to-head competition was first introduced in 1997.
McGill swept all four races in the men's competition to capture the Challenge Blade for the first time since 2003. The Redmen have won the trophy six times in 13 years.
But Queen's matched that by sweeping all four events in the women's division to merit the Challenge trophy, ending a two-year win streak for the Martlets and improving their all-time record to 8-4 against the McGill women.
At the end of the day, the rivals were tied in the scoring and race officials broke the deadlock using the varsity boat that had the largest margin of victory. The Redmen varsity eight had completed their race in nine minutes and 12 seconds, finishing five seconds ahead of Queen's. However, the Gaels women won their race in 10:45, six seconds ahead of the Martlets, which gave Queen's a one-second victory and the Lorne Gales trophy as overall champions.
A maneuvering error by the McGill varsity eight in the 2.8km race proved costly. While leading at the 1,000m mark, the Redmen crew hit a buoy, which allowed Queen's to catch up and take the lead. McGill rallied, however, to win the race by a boat length but it proved to be a bittersweet victory as their shorter margin of victory ended up being the deciding factor when the tie-breaking procedure was deployed.
"It was a beautiful sunny day and everything worked as planned, except for us winning the overall title," said McGill's Renaud Garon-Gendron, a 21-year-old Science sophomore from Boucherville, Que. "We thank the organizing committee and the Lachine rowing club for their much-appreciated efforts in organizing this regatta."
"Today was about redemption," said Queen's rower Jacqueline Day. "We have done very poorly at this regatta in the last two years, and we trained really hard this year to bring back the prestigious Women's Challenge Trophy. We've come a long way in the last year, and this race sets us up really nicely for the fall season."
Each school raced men's and women's boats in a pair of heats, in both novice and varsity heavyweight categories, for a 2.8-kilometre headrace, followed by a head-to-head in 500m sprint. Points were awarded for each victory.
Lorne Gales Challenge Cup Overall Champions
2010 - Queen's
2009 - McGill
2008 - Queen's
2007 - Queen's
2006 - Queen's
2005 - Queen's
2004 - Queen's
2003 - McGill
2002 - McGill
2001 - Queen's
2000 - Queen's
1999 - McGill
1998 - McGill
1997 - McGill
Men's Challenge Blade Champions
2010 - McGill
2009 - Queen's
2008 - Queen's
2007 - Queen's
2006 - Queen's
2005 - Queen's
2004 - Queen's
2003 - McGill
2002 - McGill
2001 - Queen's
2000 - McGill
1999 - McGill
1998 - McGill
Women's Challenge Trophy Champions
2010 - Queen's
2009 - McGill
2008 - McGill
2007 - Queen's
2006 - McGill
2005 - Queen's
2004 - Queen's
2003 - Queen's
2002 - Queen's
2001 - Queen's
2000 - Queen's
1999 - McGill
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
McGill Athletics
(514) 398-7012