The Men’s 8+ boat of the MIT Rowing Club competed in the largest regatta of the world, the Head of the Charles. With an official race time of 16 minutes and 11 seconds the team established a new record in all the 25 years of history of the club.
Club Rowing finished 26th of the 40 boats in their category, 3 seconds after the MIT varsity crew and 1 second before Williams College.
To prepare for this the MIT Rowing Club practiced every week of the season early in the morning. “For us this is not just a race, our representation of MIT is a binding commitment to give everything we have.” Says Javier Viaña, seat 6 of the boat.
The MIT Rowing club had 2 other boats in the regatta, a women’s 8 and a mixed 8 that scored a time of 19’ 39” and 19’ 38” time respectively.
Furthermore, one of the club rowers, Jim Serdy, with an age 83, rowed with the famous Octogenarian Eight at the Director’s Challenge on Sunday!
In its 57th edition, the Head of the Charles brought this time 2,488 boats, 11,000 athletes, and 792 clubs from 27 countries, which makes it the biggest rowing event of the world to date.
This regatta was established in 1965 and is a three-day competition that attracts more than 400,000 people to the Greater Boston area generating an impact of $100 million to the local economy.
Rowers in the image from left to right: Maarten Peters, Raphael Dijoud, Nikita Budnik, Zachary Adams, Javier Viaña, Luzi Sennhauser, James Gabbard, and Faraz Faruqi. Coxswain Emily Chen.