How to display earlier posts instead of latest posts

Hi,
How can I display earlier or first entered posts instead of latest posts.
Here is my code:

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
    	<?php $recent = new WP_Query("cat=8&showposts=2"); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>
    	<tr>
        	<td style="padding:10px 0;">
            <?php if (has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID ) ){ ?>
									<?php $image = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ), 'single-post-thumbnail' ); ?>
									<img src="<?php echo $image[0]; ?>" width="198px" height="96" />
									<?php }else { ?>
									<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/event-image.jpg" width="198px" height="96" />
									<?php } ?>
            </td>
            <td valign="middle" style="vertical-align:middle; padding:0 10px;">
            	<?php the_title(); ?><br />
    <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"class="whitelink">Click here to read more</a>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <?php endwhile; ?>
    </table>