29 October 2018
By Göran R Buckhorn
It was the two New Zealand scullers Robbie Manson and Hannah Osborne who won The Philadelphia Challenge Cup, or the Gold Cup for short, on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia this past weekend. Manson and Osborne each received $10,000 in prize money. Not bad for having rowed 700 metres – that’s a little more than $14 per metre. (Or $75.75 per rowed second for Manson and $67.57 per rowed second for Osborne.)
Fighting for the men’s Gold Cup were the four top scullers: current world-record holder Robert ‘Robbie’ Manson (New Zealand); the 2018 world champion Kjertil Borch (Norway); the rising sculling star Oliver ‘Olli’ Zeidler (Germany); and defending Gold Cup champion Damir Martin (Croatia). Borch won the cup both in 2014 and 2015.
The time was tight for the men who were in the three top positions. Manson’s winning time was 2:12.582. Second placed Martin came in at 2:12.639, third placed Borch at 2:12.804. Zeidler’s time was 2:19.530.
‘So cool to win @thegoldcup alongside one of my best friends! It’s been such a fun week here in Philadelphia with an awesome group of people! Also a pretty big pay day 
to finish an up and down year on a high. Thank you so much to @thegoldcup for the invite and treating us like rockstars for the week!,’ Manson wrote on his Instagram account @robbie_manson.
The four scullers racing for the women’s Gold Cup were Hannah Osborne (New Zealand), who has taken over the sculling reins from her country woman Emma Twigg; Sanita Puspure (Ireland), the 2018 world champion; 2016 Olympian Carling Zeeman (Canada); and Kara Kohler (USA), who placed fourth at the World Championships.
Osborne’s winning time was 2:28.308, second placed Zeeman crossed the finish line at 2:28.927, Puspure at 2:31.781 and Kohler at 2:33.606.
The champions were each awarded $10,000. However, the other six scullers did not go home empty-handed, $5,000 each went to the two scullers in second place, $2,500 each for the third placed and $1,000 each for the fourth placed. Manson and Osborne will receive a Gold Cup medal with their names, and their names will be inscribed on the base of the cup.
This weekend was also the 2018 edition of the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. More than 2,250 entries represented 274 clubs, which raced on the 2,5-mile-long long course on the Schuylkill.
The Herb Lotman United States Rowing Challenge was won by Genevra Stone and John Graves, who both received $9,000 in prize money. The US Lotman Challenge was created last year by the Philadelphia Gold Challenge Cup Foundation in partnership with USRowing, the Head of The Charles Regatta and the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. The challenge comprises of three events, the USRowing first National Selection Regatta in April, Head of the Charles Regatta in mid-October and Head of the Schuylkill Regatta in late October. The scullers who accumulated the most points at these three regattas receive the prize money, $9,000.
The challenge was created with the hopes of encouraging more U.S. rowers to take up the sculling oars. Felice Mueller and John Graves won the challenge last year.