Boothbay’s Ellie Logan and the U.S. women’s eight woman crew team easily rowed into the finals Sunday, besting their rivals by a 6-second margin in the first qualifying heat of the London Olympic Games.

Logan and her teammates, who are defending champions, will race for the championship Thursday. Their chief rivals are expected to be teams from Canada and Romania.

Bill Logan, Ellie’s proud dad is in London to cheer on his daughter and said the women’s eight final race is the talk of the British capital.

“Dramatic build-up to W8 (women’s eight crew) plus the US-CAN (Canadian) showdown plus the always dangerous Romanians. USA 8 heat was the talk of London even though the CAN’s time was faster in its heat by (a) half second,” Bill Logan wrote in an email to the Regiser.

The race will be on TV on Thursday, Aug.2, between 2:20 and 3 p.m. on WCSH 6. NBC is also streaming all events live at www.nbcolympics.com/liveextra/index.html. Logan’s race will be on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

The 24-year-old Stanford grad and five of her teammates earned the Olympic Gold medal four years ago in Beijing.