Morning Briefing - Saturday
After yesterday’s amuse bouche we’re back for more racing, hungrier than ever.
There are ten events in play today with a maximum of 50 points for any crew that can dominate the field from start to finish and collect that coveted bonus point.
Read more on the scoring system here.
As always, we’ve got our eyes out for drama and upsets and have the data to help us find it!
Saturday’s Hot Favourites 🌶️
As we learned at the World Championships - the list of hot favourites are where you’ll find the most shocking upsets, and with Ireland’s dream-crusher Fiona Murtagh taking to the water today… it’s game on!
Here are the races with the hottest favourites (most support from Fantasy Rowing players) and the largest gaps to their contenders.
Men’s Championship Singles
🔥 Waikato Rowing Club — 59.5% (in just a few months Finn Hamill has gone from uber-underdog at HRR to the people’s champion)
Nearest Challenger: USRowing Training Center - Sarasota — 5.5% (Gap: 54.0%)
Women’s Master/Senior Master Eights [30+, 40+]
🔥 Texas Rowing Center — 56.6%
Nearest Challenger: Capital Rowing Club — 7.5% (Gap: 49.1%)
Men’s Alumni Eights
🔥 University of Washington Alumni — 47.4%
Nearest Challenger: Brown University Alumni — 12.0% (Gap: 35.4%)
Men’s Grand Master Fours [50+]
🔥 Crabtree Boat Club - Cambridge Alumni — 50.7%
Nearest Challenger: Marin Rowing Association — 17.9% (Gap: 32.9%)
Men’s Club Fours
🔥 Dartmouth College Rowing — 43.1%
Nearest Challenger: Harvard University Crew — 16.7% (Gap: 26.4%)
There’s quite a lot of interest in this Harvard crew given they’re a little bit further down the start list than a lot of the other 2nd favourites, so this could be a sign that a few people know something that other people don’t - one to watch!!!
Saturday’s Surprises 🎉
Where some events have clear favourites, others have the Fantasy Rowing community scrambling around for ideas. Sometimes this is because there’s just no information out there to help and so it becomes a guessing game, but in other events like the Women’s Championship Singles - there’s so much quality in the field that it’s just god damn difficult!
Women’s Club Fours
A lottery! Columbia University lead with 18.6% of the support, but they’re chased but a fearsome pack; Boston University Women’s Crew (16.1%), Kansas (15.1%), Dartmouth (11.7%) and the club I’ll be cheering for, London Rowing Club (8.6%) 🥁 - good luck everyone!
Women’s Championship Singles
A completely ridiculous field stacked with international oarswomen. USRowing Training Center - Princeton — 30.0%, A.S.R. Nereus — 17.2% (Gap: 12.7%), NUIG (15.1%), Cambridge Boat Club (12.7%) & Upper Thames (10.1%). With two current World Champions in the 1x, but 8 more International level scullers in the field, so much is going to be determined by what they’ve been doing over the past month (and whether or not they’re doubling up). It’s unlikely that those athletes who were peaking for Worlds will have had their foot on the gas since then, so this leaves the door open for someone who’s had the freedom to set their own goals - this could be the race of the day!
Women’s Alumnae Eights
Stanford Women’s Crew Alumni — 35.0% have a solid lead over the Longhorn Legends — 20.3% (Gap: 14.8%) but there’s a swell of support behind with UW Alumni (8.2%), Oxford Alumni (6.5%) and Crabtree Boat Club (5.8%). The Crabtree crew is quite highly decorated, so it will be interesting to see if they’ve been overlooked.
Directors’ Challenge Mixed Quad
After this year’s World Champs and the new events, who doesn’t love a mixed event for some unpredictability! CBC/MCRA (composite) are favourites with 25.5% of the support but they’ve got very little breathing space back to Lake Washington Rowing Club — 20.4% (Gap: 5.1%).
With other contenders Potomac (11.6%) & Cambridge (8.2%) also not far behind - this event could cause some movement in the Fantasy Rowing leaderboard towards the end of the day.
Saturday Summary 📝
There’s a lot going on so it’s going to be frantic trying to keep up - the Fantasy Rowing events start from 1000 Eastern Time with the Men’s Grand Master Fours [50+] (1500 UK) and run through to 1600 Eastern Time with the Para Doubles.
For players with the app there’s a full timetable in your Saturday Scorecard or if you click [Races] on the daily summary - if you were late to the game, no problem, you can still download the app and take a random selection of picks and follow along with the fun - just download it and get going - it’s free.
