Issue 93 - October 1996

Oxford go Dutch

Rene Mijnders, who coached the Dutch eight to gold medal victory at the Olympic Regatta in Atlanta last month, will coach the Blue boat for the 1997 Boat Race. Head coach to the Dutch national squad for the past ten years, Mijnders, who is 40, restructured the sport in the Netherlands and put together the national eight after Barcelona four years ago. His crew won silver medals at the 1994 and 1995 World Championships and impressed the rowing world with the relaxed and highly efficient technical level of their rowing.

Mijnders is on a six month, open-ended contract with Oxford. A Dutch international in the mid 1980s at both lightweight and heavyweight levels, Mijnders will take over the Boat Race squad, leaving Dan Topolski and Penny Chuter, who both have one year remaining of their three-year contracts, to undertake other duties. Topolski, with his intimate knowledge of the Boat Race and the Tideway course, will fill a consultancy role and Chuter, who has coached the Boat Race crew on a day to day basis for two years, will take over responsibility for rowing development at Oxford colleges, including lightweights and women.

'It is a new challenge for me coaching Oxford,' Mijnders says. ' I am pleased to have the chance to play a part in the most famous rowing race in the world.' Topolski says: 'I am really thrilled. It will lift our game.' He also admitted that the Dark Blue camp had been lax in recent years in developing rowing through from college level to the top. 'We have had a big gap in the task of bringing people on. We must try and fill that gulf.'

Chuter, who will be instrumental in the developmental task which she was already involved in last summer term, said of Mijnders, 'Having just won the Olympic blue riband event, he must be looked at as the best coach in the world ... and he is fresh.'

Worryingly for Oxford supporters, some might have to risk hypothermia next March 29 if the Dark Blues win and the Dutch tradition of stripping off and swimming out to the victorious crew with flags aloft is followed.

The 143rd Boat Race for the Beefeater Gin Trophy will take place on Saturday March 29 at approximately 4.00pm.

© Copyright Mike Rosewell, 1996.