Bastien Ripoll, an unassuming engineering student from Toulouse, looks set
to make history when the 2006 Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging, takes
place at 4.35pm on Sunday 2 April.
Should Ripoll, aged 25, escape illness and injury between now and that
date, he will become the first Frenchman to have rowed in The Race which
takes place every year between Putney and Mortlake on the river Thames and
features crews from Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
What’s more, the Frenchman has won the coveted "stroke"
seat. He will set the rhythm for the powerhouses behind him in the Dark
Blue crew.
"Bastien is so focussed and sets us up with a fantastic rhythm",
said Oxford President Barney Williams who has himself become a focus of
attention after becoming a father for the first time recently.
The new arrival has tested his time management skills to the full as he
juggles new parenthood, rowing training, studying and his presidential
duties on a daily basis. His wife, Buffy, is also studying at Oxford and is
a former international rower with Canada.
"We have huge confidence in Sean (Bowden), our coach, and I’m
really enjoying working in partnership with him to create a training
programme which, it has to be said, is pretty tough. You would think that
this would be a time to haul back on the reins a little and take it easy
because of lack of sleep or whatever but I actually feel so much stronger
than I did last year. There is a real sense that everyone is pushing each
other within the squad which makes it a really exciting environment to
train in", said Williams.
Ripoll and Williams were both named today in an Oxford crew which is
bristling with international talent, reflecting the increasingly
international student base at both Oxford and Cambridge.
They will be joined by GB squad members Colin Smith and Tom Parker as well
as American and Canadian internationals Paul Daniels, Jake Wetzel and Jamie
Schroeder as and English undergraduate Robin Esjmond-Frey who rowed in Isis
in 2005, was a junior county rugby player and is now studying theology. The
Oxford Blue Boat will be coxed by Nick Brodie.
The Light Blues will race this year under the guidance of new coach Duncan
Holland. A New Zealander, Holland joined Cambridge University Boat Club as
Head Coach in April of last year after previous top-flight experience with
Swiss, Dutch and New Zealand crews amongst others. He took over from Robin
Williams who had stepped down from the position after the 2005 Race, having
been at the club for over a decade.
Commenting on the challenge ahead, in which he will pit his skills against
those of long-established Oxford coach Sean Bowden, Holland said: "We
are focussing on boatspeed and getting it right on the day. I know it is a
sporting cliche but ‘control the controllable’. I can’t
affect what Oxford do, so worrying about them doesn’t help our boat
go faster. At the moment we are working on economy of movement; going fast
without using excessive energy, and the psychology of peaking at the right
moment. Oxford will be fast, we know that. We are intending to be
faster".
Bowden meanwhile said: "Training has gone well so far with good gains
in fitness and technique across the whole squad. We all recognise the
challenge that Cambridge represent this year and we continue to push as
hard as we can to ready ourselves for The Race"
Holland’s crew will also go to the line packed with
international-class oarsmen. Canadian Kip McDaniel will stroke the boat
which will include Britain’s 2000 Olympic champion and former
Cambridge President, Kieran West, who has returned to Cambridge to study
for a PhD, as well as GB Olympian and engineering undergraduate, Tom James.
Holland can equally call upon the considerable power and expertise offered
by a trio of German international medallists in Sebastian Schulte,
Sebastian Thormann (a qualified doctor) and Berliner Thorsten Engelmann.
Tom Edwards, Cambridge’s popular Australian President, has avoided
the fate of his immediate predecessor, Andrew Shannon, by winning a seat in
the Blue Boat rather than having to settle for the reserves. Like American
Luke Walton and British cox Peter Rudge, he is also a returning Blue.
Boat Race sponsor Xchanging can therefore rest assured that they are
supporting a quality contest in the second race under their backing.
Cambridge lead the series overall since 1829 by 78-72. Oxford won last
year’s contest. Many recent Boat Races have been packed with
excitement including the 2003 Race which Oxford one by just one foot.
The 2006 Boat Race, sponsored by Xchanging CREW LISTS
CAMBRIDGE
NAME(AGE) COLLEGE SCHOOL HOMETOWN DOB
Thomas (Tom) Edwards (28) Gonville & Caius The Friends’ School
Hobart, Australia 26/5/77 Thorsten Englemann (24) St Edmund’s Humbold
Gymnasium, Berlin Berlin 20/7/81 Tom James (21) Trinity Hall King’s
School, Chester Wrexham 11/3/84 Kristopher (Kip) McDaniel (24) St
Edmund’s Shawnigan Lake School Cobble Hill, BC, Canada 27/1/82 Peter
Rudge (24) Hughes Hall King’s School, Chester Chester 21/10/81 (cox)
Sebastian Schulte (27) Gonville & Caius Dilthey-Schule Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden, Germany 13/12/78 Sebastian (Seb) Thormann (30) Peterhouse
Dietrich-Bonhoeffer Wertheim 21/2/76 Luke Walton (26) St Edmund’s
Poway High School 29/5/79 Kieran West (28) Pembroke Dulwich College West
Byfleet, Surrey 18/9/77
OXFORD
Nicholas (Nick) Brodie (19) St Catherine’s Abingdon School Oxford
6/8/86 (cox) Paul Daniels (24) St Anne’s Burlington, Wisconsin,USA
4/6/81 Robin Esjmond-Frey (19) Oriel St Paul’s Hammersmith 14/3/86
Tom Parker (23) Harris Manchester Radley Winchester 24/10/82 Bastien Ripoll
(25) St Catherine’s Lycee Bellevue, Toulouse Toulouse, France 8/7/80
James (Jamie) Schroeder (24) Christ Church Choate Rosemary Hall Wilmette,
Illinois, USA 9/9/81 Colin Smith (22) St Catherine’s Prince Edward
Henley-on-Thames 23/9/83 Jacob (Jake) Wetzel (29) Linacre University of
British Columbia Golden, BC, Canada 26/12/76 Barney Williams (28) Jesus
Upper Canada College, Toronto Victoria, BC, Canada 13/3/77
ISIS AND GOLDIE CREW LISTS
CAMBRIDGE - GOLDIE
NAME(AGE) COLLEGE SCHOOL HOMETOWN DOB
Ian Coveny (31) Hughes Hall Warsaw Central Warsaw, New York, USA 25/12/74
Kyle Coveny (25) Hughes Hall Warsaw Central Warsaw, New York, USA 11/5/80
Russell Glenn (24) Darwin Moorpark High School Los Angeles, CA. USA 3/2/82
Jesper Hasell (24) Pembroke Wellington School, Somerset Wellington,
Somerset 29/7/81 Charlie Palmer (27) Hughes Hall Launceston Church Grammar
Hagley, Tasmania, AU 25/10/78 Samuel (Sam) Pearson (24)Jesus Wynberg
Boys’ High School Cape Town 25/5/81 Tim (Perko) Perkins (27) Jesus
Wesley College, Perth Perth, Australia 4/5/78 Edward (Ed) Sherwood (21)
Jesus Malbank, Cheshire Nantwich 7/5/84 Don Wyper (23) St Edmund’s St
John’s Jesuit High School Toledo, Ohio, USA 4/5/82
OXFORD - ISIS
Andrew Brennan (23) Wadham Episcopal Academy, Merion Valley Forge, PA, USA
6/5/82 Dominic Burke (24) Lincoln Colaiste Iognaid School Galway, Ireland
18/11/81 Phillip (Phil) Killicoat (25) Magdalen Bordertown High School
Bordertown, AUS 8/10/80 Terence Kooyker (22) Keble The Lawrenceville School
New York City, USA 12/8/83 Bruce Magee (25) St Catherine’s Southland
Boys High Ivercargill, NZ 13/8/80 Jonathan (Jonny) Mathews (22) Balliol St
Paul’s Esher 15/7/83 Michiel Munneke (25) Christ Church Maartens
College Amsterdam 7/1/81 Sebastian (Seb) Pearce (23) Pembroke The
King’s School, Worcester Bromsgrove 10/5/82 Andrew Wright (25) St
Edmund’s Nelson High, Burlington Burlington, Ontario 28/1/81
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