It wasn’t truly home like Coal Harbour but the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds still made the Gorge their own personal waterway on Saturday.
The Thunderbirds swept all four races against their University of Victoria Vikes rivals — men’s and women’s varsity and junior varsity eights — in the Brown Cup.
The annual 3.5-kilometre match-races from Gorge Narrows to the Steamship Restaurant in the Inner Harbour, between Canadian rowing powers UVic and UBC, are this country’s answer to the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Races up the Thames.
The Brown Cup features the two university rowing programs that have produced the most Olympians for Canada. The Thunderbirds’ halcyon Olympic medals era was at Melbourne in 1956 and Rome in 1960. The UVic men’s Olympic prime was from Los Angeles in 1984 to Beijing in 2008 with gold medallists Dean Crawford, Kevin Neufeld, Grant Main, John Wallace, Derek Porter, Darren Barber, Bruce Robertson, Andy Crosby, Kevin Light and Adam Kreek.
The current UVic and UBC groups are aspiring, as well.
“This is the biggest event of the spring in Canadian rowing. You are watching future Olympians,” said UVic men’s head coach Aalbert Van Schothorst. “These are the two best university crews in the country going head-to-head. There are unbelievable athletes in both boats.”
But the best on Saturday belonged to UBC as the T-Birds varsity men were across in 11 minutes, 01.5 seconds to UVic’s 11:19.7 for an 18.2 seconds margin of victory.
“UBC got up on us and kept going,” said Van Schothorst. “It was end-to-end for them, with good cohesion, and so credit to them. Our preparation was there and we walked away from the water with a friendship and loyalty bond that will last a lifetime.”
The Vikes varsity crew was led by under-23 world championship bronze medallist Giancarlo DiPompeo, U-23 worlds rower Andrew Hubbard and 2023 Santiago Pan Am Games rowers Connor Attridge and Quinn Storey.
The UVic men lead the all-time Brown Cup series 20-11 but have not won since 2018 in what has been a dominant era for a UBC eight labelled in Canadian university rowing circles as the “Crew of the Century.”
The UBC women’s varsity eight weren’t too shabby, either, Saturday. The Thunderbirds bested a UVic program that won the 2022 and 2023 Canadian women’s university championships and which produced Tokyo 2020 Olympic medallists Avalon Wasteneys and Caileigh Filmer. They continue a legacy that includes previous Vikes Olympic medallists Silken Laumann, Kirsten Barnes, Jessica Monroe-Gonin, Lisa Robertson, Buffy Alexander, Anna Vander Kamp, Theresa Luke, Darcy Marquardt, Rachelle de Jong and Lindsay Jennerich.
The UBC varsity women were across in 12:30.9 to UVic’s 12:34.2 for a 3.3 seconds margin of victory.
“It was tough to lose but we put up a solid fight,” said UVic head coach Jane Gumley.
“We were not happy with the result but we were happy with the effort. We raced with heart. But UBC had a fast start and that’s tough to come back from in head-to-head racing.”
UVic, the 2023 winner, leads the all-time women’s Brown Cup series against UBC 26-5.
The Vikes were led by stroke Ellie Sousa and veteran coxswain Helen Ross.
“It is great for our athletes, and great for our sport of rowing, to go under the bridges [Selkirk Trestle and Johnson Street Bridge] packed with people,” Gumley said of the Brown Cup spectacle that attracted hundreds of spectators along the Gorge in overcast but generally placid rowing conditions.
Several of the UBC and UVic rowers will become teammates in Canada boats in July at the 2024 FISU World University Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. “There will be a good mix of rowers from UVic and UBC on the Canada crews in Rotterdam,” said Gumley, who will be on the Canadian coaching staff.
