Senior Men Take Series! Sept. 22, 2014 Otago University has won the test series in Russia The three race test series against Russian Champions St Petersburg State University was raced this saturday and sunday. Saturday's lunchtime race's was the 200m sprint which was won by St Petersburg in a time 51.60 and Otago in 51.78. Saturday evening at 7pm the traditional 2000m race was held - Both crews started at a high rate of 42 and only settled to 39 at the 500m mark, at the 700m mark Otago made a huge move and pulled half a boat length in front, St Petersburg tried to respond but could not pull back up on Otago. Otago held this lead through to 500m to go where they pulled out to a full lengths lead. On the finish line Otago had a 2 length win - in a time of 5:46 with St Petersburg crossing the line in 5:53. On sunday the longdistance 5.7km race was held on the waterways that run through the centre of St Petersburg - this has never been done before, special permission was granted from the City to run the race and to shut down the river to the tourist boats for 1 hour. The race went through 12 bridges, some of which were very tight for coxswain Sachin Arulambalam to get the boat through. Otago started extremely well and pulled out to a 1 length lead almost immediately. From here Otago totally controlled the race with a high rate of 38 strokes per minute through out the race. 3 kms into the race with Otago leading by a huge 10 lengths - disaster almost occurred when a tourist boat that obviously didn't get the message that there was a rowing race going on turned in front of the Otago crew, coxswain Sachin made a quick turn to avoid the collision which would of ended Otago's race. From here Otago continued to move away with a strong rhythm lead by crew stroke Adrian Riepen. St Petersburg struggled over the last kilometer of the race and Otago took the win by a huge 50 seconds. giving Otago the overall series win 2-1. Otago University Rowing Senior men's coach Matthew Adam was extremely pleased with the final race he said "They rowed extremely well today, they rowed as a crew, it has been an honour to coach such fine athletes that have been dedicated to this event for the past three months."