Jacob Gill Gaudaur, Sr. (April 3, 1858 – October 11, 1937) was one of two Canadians to win the Professional World Sculling Championship.
[2] At the inaugural Toronto Industrial Exhibition in 1879, Gaudaur won a match race against William McKen for CA$300 (equivalent to $10,889 in 2023).
[3] Gaudaur won international fame when he beat Edward Trickett, the former World Champion, in England in 1881.
He was trained by another former World Champion Ned Hanlan and on May 30, 1887, managed to beat him in a race at New York.
The year of 1893 saw him win the three miles race for the American Single Sculls Championship in a record time of 19m.06s.
After this he offered to row any person in the world for the American Championship or for any race between a quarter and three miles for a stake of between $1000 and $2500.
When he won the Championship for a third time he was given permanent possession of the prize, the Richard K Fox Trophy.
Gaudaur went ahead but Beach being cheered on by his supporters made another effort but did not catch his opposition.
His coach then gave a strong encouragement to go on as he thought Gaudaur was just about "rowed out," which proved true.
Despite another stop from exhaustion, Beach then managed to row on reasonably strongly to cross the line ahead of the challenger.
In 1892, Gaudaur teamed with George Hosmer to win the world double sculls championship.
In 1893, Gaudaur won the Championship of America in single sculls, finishing the 3 miles (4.8 km) race in a record time of 19:06.
He travelled to North America and had hoped to meet Gaudaur for a match but terms could not be agreed on, so he returned home.
Gaudaur's physical details were given at this time as; height 6 ft (1.8 m), weight 12.5 st (79 kg), chest 41 in (100 cm), or more.
Thousands of people lined the banks of the river to witness the event and great enthusiasm was displayed.
Stanbury won the toss and chose the Surrey side and after twelve false starts the men got away.
For a half mile the boats were level but a short time later Gaudaur was almost clear ahead.
At Hammersmith Bridge Stanbury made a desperate effort to catch the Canadian and nearly did so but a foul occurred.
Stanbury was severely criticized for not completing the race at speed and the question of who was the better sculler was not clearly settled.
When Gaudaur returned home to Orillia he was given a parade and reception, complete with fireworks, and the Mayor presented him with a purse containing CA$500 (equivalent to $23,455 in 2023) in gold.