13 May 2017

Göran R Buckhorn writes:

We are now only six weeks away from Henley Royal Regatta. Sixty years ago, Stuart MacKenzie of Sydney Rowing Club took his first of six victories in the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley by beating Vyacheslav Ivanov of the Soviet Union. The Russian had, a year earlier, over-powered the Australian in the Olympic final in the single sculls, leaving him with a silver medal. While Ivanov would claim an incredible three Olympic gold medals in the single sculls, in 1956, 1960 and 1964, MacKenzie had to be satisfied with one Olympic medal during his rowing career.

The following two-minute ten-second British Pathé film shows the final of the Diamonds between these two sculling giants. There is also a short snippet of the final of the Grand Challenge Cup between Yale and Cornell, the first time there was an all-American final in the Grand.