Rowing: Famous crew face hard river row

By JULIE ASH

England's Oxford rowing eight are putting in the hard yards on the Waikato river before their clash with Waikato University on Sunday.

The Oxford University team arrived in New Zealand 10 days ago to prepare for the Boathouse Eights rowing race.

The race is modelled on the Oxford/Cambridge University event, which Oxford won in March by just one second. Five rowers from that Oxford team will line up on Sunday.

In front of 20,000 spectators, Waikato beat England's Cambridge University to win the inaugural Boathouse 8s race and the Harry Mahon memorial trophy last year.

Rob Hamill, one of the event organisers, said it was too difficult to predict a winner.

"At one stage I kind of picked Waikato, but then when I saw the Oxford guys train they changed my mind.

"If I was trying to set the odds I couldn't pick a winner. They are both very good crews."

The 4.6km race starts at 2pm at St Andrews Tce and is expected to take 17 to 18 minutes before the crews cross the finish line outside the Hamilton Rowing Club.