Harvard Heavyweight Crew Wins Pan-Am Heat in Day's Top Time

Harvard's heavyweight crew raced to an impressive victory in last night's trial heats at the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg. Canada. On the strength of its showing last night. Harvard's crew--the official representative of the United States at the Games--stands an excellent chance of winning the Gold Medal.

Harvard's opponents in the heat were Argentina and the highly-touted Canadian crew from the University of British Columbia. The Canadians, who captured the Gold Medal at the Pan-American games four years ago in Brazil, finished more than a length behind the Crimson last night.

In the other trial heat. Cuba outpaced Mexico and Paraguay. Cuba and the United States, by winning their respective heats, will go automatically into the finals Saturday night. The other four boats will race again today, and the first three will also enter the finals. The two days of heats are required to eliminate just one boat.

Harvard's time of 6:19, though not outstanding, was very good considering the conditions. During the race, a brisk 15-20 mile per hour head and cross-wind produced choppy water and difficult racing conditions.

The Harvard crew grabbed a lead of half-a-length right from the start of the race. The Canadians finished five seconds behind Harvard with a time of 6:24, and Argentina finished third at 7:32. In last night's other heat, the Cuba boat--racing the same length and under the same conditions as the Harvard crew--captured first place with an unimpressive 6:33.

The 2000 meter (about 1 1/4 mile) race was held on Winnipeg's floodway, the world's second largest ditch after the Panama Canal. It is used to absorb the floodwaters of the Red River. The Pan-American Games authorities flooded three miles of the 26-mile floodway for.