Weekend Preview: Welland Hosts 2021 OUA Rowing Championships
Competition/ Oct 27

Weekend Preview: Welland Hosts 2021 OUA Rowing Championships


After a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the OUA Rowing Championships are back this weekend and will run from the South Course of the Welland International Flatwater Centre in Welland, Ont. on Saturday, Oct. 30.

Thirteen Ontario university rowing programs will compete at the event with a total of over 140 boats. The Brock Badgers and Western Mustangs have the most entries with 20 boats each, followed by the Ottawa Gee-Gees with 15 and the Queen’s Gaels and Toronto Varsity Blues with 14. Other universities competing at the conference championships are the Trent Excalibur (12), Guelph Gryphons (11), McMaster Marauders (10), Carleton Ravens (9), Nipissing Lakers (6), Waterloo Warriors (5), Ontario Tech Ridgebacks (4), and Laurentian Voyageurs (2).

The last time the OUA Rowing Championships were hosted in 2019, the Western Mustangs brought home both the men’s and women’s championship banners. The women’s championship was the seventh consecutive for the school, while the men’s team earned their second straight and fourth in five years. The Brock Badgers and Queen’s Gaels finished second and third respectively in both the men’s and women’s standings in 2019.

A busy day of rowing action will see the races kick off at 9am with the women’s lightweight single heats and will finish with the men’s lightweight pair final which is scheduled for 4:45pm.

A day prior to the OUA Championships on Friday, Oct. 29, the Western Mustangs will host the 2021 Development Regatta which will also take place from the Welland International Flatwater Centre. The regatta will see novice and junior varsity rowers from Ontario universities complete their university rowing seasons. Schools sending athletes to the Development Regatta include Brock, Guelph, McMaster, Ontario Tech, Queen’s, U of T, Waterloo and Western.

Elsewhere in the province this weekend, the Argonaut Rowing Club will host the Martha Coffey Frostbite Sprints in Toronto on the Western Beaches Dragon Boat Course. The regatta will take place on Sunday, Oct. 31 and will feature 500m sprint races for youth, women’s, and men’s, as well as mixed doubles, fours, quads, and eights. The action begins at 8am on Sunday morning.

For more information on the OUA Rowing Championships visit RegattaCentral.
For more information on the Martha Coffey Frostbite Sprints visit RegattaCentral.

For the full regatta schedule in Ontario, visit the Row Ontario website.