Row Ontario Hosts Grand Opening of ONGPC
On Friday Sept. 17, Row Ontario hosted the Grand Opening of the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre in Welland, Ont.
The ONGPC opened its doors for the first time on Sept. 2, 2020, but an official Grand Opening couldn’t be held until over a year later due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of Row Ontario’s sponsors and partners in sport attended the festivities, which were held in the Centre’s dry-land training facility on Hagar St. in Welland.
“In January 2020 our Director of Performance Pathways Chris Marshall said in casual conversation, ‘hey we should open a training centre’,” said Row Ontario CEO Andrew Backer during his opening remarks at the Grand Opening. “And within a couple months we had a vision, a five-year plan and approval from our board to open a Centre. We have a unique opportunity to provide a training environment such as this thanks to our amazing partners, including the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, RCA, the City of Welland, CSIO, HUDSON Boatworks and RegattaSport. There’s nothing better than seeing the athletes do what they love and have the necessary tools available to them so they can be best they can be and achieve their rowing goals.”
Guest speakers during the festivities included Sheref Sabawy, Parliamentary Assistant to the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, Mayor of Welland Frank Campion and Debbie Low, CEO of Canadian Sport Institute Ontario (CSIO). The Grand Opening concluded with a tour of the ONGPC’s on-water facility.
“I’m honoured to be here on behalf of Minister Lisa MacLeod for the Grand Opening of the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre,” said Sabawy. “Through our amateur sport fund, our government is proud to help Row Ontario and the City of Welland provide a world class training and event hosting environment for the Ontario rowing community.”
The Ontario NextGen Performance Centre features programming developed by a panel of leading advisors targeted at developing the next generation of high performance Ontario rowers. The Centre nurtures Ontario’s brightest young athletes’ abilities and puts them on a path to achieve their high-performance rowing goals. Athletes training at the Centre receive all the tools they need to be successful both on and off the water.
For more information about the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre, visit the Row Ontario website.
