In a new twist to the event, a 580-meter dash for cash was added to the ticket.

The three top finishers from the three-mile men's and women's Championship Singles event raced head-to-head with $30,000 up for grabs.

The event was sponsored by Charles Schwab and attracted the world's best to Boston.

"It definitely brought some of the world's best rowers," Manning said. "Just a month after the Olympics, most would have just stayed home. It's normal to see such high-caliber rowers at this event, but never before in an Olympic year and never before this good."

In the three-mile event, Olympic gold medallist Rob Waddell raced to a first-place finish in a time of 18:20.89. Xeno Meuller from Switzerland, the silver medallist in Sydney and the gold medallist from Atlanta, finished second with a time of 18:26.13.

In the women's event, Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria scored a little revenge on Olympic gold medallist Ekaterina Karsten from Belarus, winning in a time of 20:12.39.

Neykova finished second to Karsten a month ago in Sydney, losing by one hundredth of a second in the closest photo finish in Olympic history.

Karsten was third today in the longer distance, finishing in a time of 20:30.67, while Sonya Waddell, the husband of Rob Waddell, improved on her sixth-place Olympic result to finish second yesterday, 11 seconds off the pace in the three-mile race.