Rowing: Harvard's Butt feels pain

e Harvard coach, Charlie Butt Jr. Earlier, his pair from Brown Alumni went out of the double sculls when the bow man's left oar handle broke.

The Irish boat Tara performed some giant-killing when they beat Stanford University in the Ladies' Plate by three feet. There has been a sudden renaissance in Irish rowing since Harald Jahrling, a former East German oarsman, moved from Australia to became chief coach.

The Tara cox, Brendan Farrell, celebrated by jumping to his feet and with some raw Anglo-Saxon at great decibels. Fortunately the umpire was too far behind to appreciate his choice phraseology.

No sooner had the Irishman sat down than Trinity College, Hartford pulled off a two-foot win against fellow Americans, the University of California, in the Temple Cup. They led all the way, but never by more than half a length, and almost fell apart when the No 3 man Paul Somers started skying his blade along the enclosures. Today they meet Oxford Brookes, who won a tight race against Cornell.

Today also sees the start of the Grand when the Great Britain eight meet Dukla Prague and Oxford take on the German national eight.

The highlight of the Goblets semi-finals is the meeting of the Olympic bronze medallists Ramon di Clementé and Donovan Cech, of South Africa, and the British pair of Kieran and Josh West. Kieran won Olympic gold in the Great Britain eight at Sydney in 2000 and has been competing at Henley since 1999, but this is the first Henley in which he has won a race.