On October 20th, Charlie T. represented Catholic High School on an international stage at the Head of the Charles Regatta® in Boston. Catholic High was one of 762 rowing teams, clubs, and organizations from around the world to participate in the ultimate two-day rowing extravaganza. Over 11,000 athletes competed in 66 different events. The course was a 5000 meter race down the Charles River, featuring seven major turns and six bridges. Charlie rowed as one of 41 entries in the Men's youth singles event that included the current US Rowing U19 national champion, the US Rowing U17 national champion, and a rower from Ireland that recently finished 2nd in the World Rowing junior championships held in Japan.
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| Charlie and his dad on the banks of the Charles River two days before the race |
The conditions were cool but with light winds. The head race format is for rowers to start sequentially with a 15 second interval between rowers. The total elapsed time from crossing the starting line to the finish line determines the winner. Because competitors move at different speeds, faster rowers can catch up with those who started before them and any rower can be passed by a faster rower that started behind him. So Charlie had to negotiate the turns, the bridges, and the traffic - yielding to those that were coming up from behind and passing those he caught.
Charlie finished 30th of 41, with a personal best time of 20:46, besting guys from Washington State, Detroit, California, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, Seattle, Minnesota and Rhode Island. We're proud of you Charlie!
The event was live streamed at two points along the course and Charlie appears at the 57:00 mark of this video and at 1:50:57 of this video.
®Head Of The Charles is a registered trademark of the Cambridge Boat Club, Gerry’s Landing Road, Cambridge, MA.
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