Crimson Crew Begins Trials

Harvard's brilliant heavyweight crew will take its first stride toward the Tokyo Olympics tomorrow morning when it meets a highly regarded University of Washington eight and two other shells in the first round of the Olympic Trials.

The unbeaten Crimson is solidly favored to dispose of the Huskies, Georgetown, and the Detroit Boat Club in the competition on Orchard Beach Lagoon, New York. Washington should supply the most formidable opposition; it was rated the second best boat on the West Coast, behind the awesome University of California eight.

If Harvard wins this opening heat, they will probably lock horns with Yale, Washington again, and the Washington junior varsity in the semifinals Friday afternoon.

California, which is the only crew with a reasonable chance to beat Harvard, has drawn less stiff opposition for the first heat. Cal's top rival should be the newly born Laconia "A" boat, an amalgam of the best rowers from several college crews in the east and midwest.

But when Saturday's finals roll around, with a chance to compete in the Olympics at stake, it should be strictly a two-boat race between Harvard and California--and no one is predicting the winner with any degree of confidence.

In another crew competition 3000 miles away, Eliot House's lightweights easily disposed of the London Rowing Club Saturday to win the Thames Challenge Cup at the Henley Regatta. The victory followed a cliffhanging one-third-of-a-length semifinal win over the Kingston Boat Club.