Young blades - and old - to battle it out in the Gallagher Great Race

The squads for the 2008 Great Race on Sunday September 7th have been announced with strength in depth in both the Waikato and Cambridge University crews, and a kiwi Olympian who just can’t seem to get enough.

Evergreen Olympic bronze medallist and 2005 world champion Nathan Twaddle headlines the Waikato University team, which also includes Under 23 world champion Graham Oberlin-Brown, and fellow Under 23 sweep oar specialists David Eade, Jade Uru, Ben Hammond and Hamish Burson. A young star of the future - Tobias Wehr-Candler – is also named. Big, strong and talented, he represented New Zealand in the coxed four at the recent World Junior Rowing Championships at Linz in Austria and has a bright future in the sport.

The squad is completed by a winner from last year’s crew, former squad athlete and outstanding junior rower Graeme Hill – a feisty racer who adds to any crew that he rows in, William Shaw, Jared Pehi, Mathew Glen, Richard Harrison and Adam Tripp. Coxswain is the vastly experienced Daniel Quigley, a veteran of international Elite, Under-23 and Junior campaigns who knows the intricacies of the Waikato river well.

“This is a strong Waikato squad with strength in depth as well as experience and eager young talent,” commented race organiser and former Olympic Robby Hamill.

“Having said that, it needs to be as Cambridge is sending a very fast boat. They are the only visiting crew to have ever defeated Waikato University on home water and they look like they are determined to retain that accolade.”

The Cambridge squad contains a hatful of rowers who raced in the main and reserve Boat Races against Oxford on the Thames in March. James Strawson, Colin Scott, Shane O’Mara, Joel Jennings, Henry Pelly, Canadian international Rob Weitemeyer, former junior world champion George Nash. Aussie international Hardy Cubasch makes his second appearance at the Great Race.