VICTORIA – It's just about time for the UBC Thunderbirds and Victoria Vikes to go head-to-head in the 32nd edition of the Brown Cup, the final rowing event of the season. It takes place on Saturday, April 5th.
Held at the Gorge Waterway in Victoria, the Brown Cup attracts thousands of spectators along the course as well as thousands of people watching Chek News' livestream of the event.
"This event is by far the most exciting of our season," said UBC women's team head coach
Craig Pond. "The three bridges that span the race course, that are almost equal distance apart, give our fans not only a great vantage point but the opportunity to cheer on the crews almost continually throughout the duration of the race."
"It's a real buzz in a sport like ours," agreed men's team head coach
Mike Pearce. "As we are outdoors and often out of sight of spectators and supporters, fanfare is not something the rowers are used to…there is no doubt the spectators feed the rowers energy under those bridges."
UBC is coming off their best-ever performance at the event last year, when they swept all four races for the first time. The men's team have come out on top at each of the last four Brown Cups, tied for their longest winning streak in the history of the event.
"The sweep last year was huge and we'd love to do it again but each year is unique with a whole new set of challenges to overcome," added Pearce. "On the men's side we've made steady progress throughout the year that we can all feel around the boathouse. Progress helps build confidence. Our crews believe they are headed in the right direction so the task now is to stay centered and focus on dialling in the consistency they will need on race day."
The men's team comes into April's races in form, having won both the Western Canadian University Championship and the Canadian University Rowing Championships back in the fall. The T-Birds are three-time defending national champions and hope to continue their dominant run with a win in all three of their major Canadian events in the 2024-25 season.
Making their performance this season even more impressive is the fact that the 'Birds have a fairly young squad – veterans
Joel Cullen,
Samuel Harris and
Nikolas Schramm are the only rowers racing at the event who are in their fourth or fifth year of eligibility.
On the women's side, the Thunderbirds have the chance to win back-to-back Brown Cups for the first time. Earlier this season the Vikes edged out the T-Birds at both the Western Canadian University Championship and the Canadian University Rowing Championships, with UBC finishing second at both events.
Just last month, however, the T-Bird women defeated UVic in four of the five races at the Elk Lake Spring Regatta, also in Victoria. Pond hopes that the results of that event will provide a lift when the two stories programs face off again this weekend.
"UBC and UVic have been the top two women's rowing programs in Canada for numerous years now and to have the opportunity to compete with our main rival is very motivating," he said. "Racing has been very close this past year with the two programs trading off wins…we have yet to race the eights this spring so the fact that the anticipation is coming to a head makes this race very exciting for both the athletes and the fans alike."
Three Thunderbirds on the Varsity Eight are competing in their first Brown Cup, including
Parker Illingworth who was a three-time NCAA champion with the University of Texas before arriving at UBC in the fall to pursue a master's degree.
Saturday's event begins with the tale of the tape at 9:00 a.m. (PT). The men's and women's reserve races happen at 12:05 p.m. and 12:25 p.m. (PT), followed by the men's varsity race at 1:05 p.m. and women's varsity race at 1:25 p.m. (PT). To watch the historic Brown Cup you can
tune into the livestream here.
