Lightweight eight, men, 2,000 m

What to remember

It is known as the king of boats: the eight is the most prestigious boat in rowing. Eight rowers, each with one sweep oar, and a coxswain seated at the stern who steers with a rudder. About 18 m long, it can reach 23 km/h.

In 1992, at the World Championships in Montreal, the German lightweight eight covered 2,000 m in 5 min 30.24 s in a heat. The crew was Klaus Altena, Christian Dahlke, Thomas Melges, Bernhard Stomporowski, Michael Kobor, Uwe Maerz, Michael Buchheit and Kai von Warburg, with Olaf Kaska as cox.

Altena had already been world champion in the lightweight four, in 1989 in Bled and in 1990 in Tasmania. As always in rowing, this is a world best time: weather varies too much for world records.