Weekend Wrap: Provincial, National and World Regattas Highlight Exciting Weekend
Ontario’s top rowers participated in another busy regatta weekend as the calendar changed to October at events from coast to coast and across the Ocean. The National Rowing Championships ran from North Cowichan, BC while the popular Head of the Trent regatta took place from its home in Peterborough, ON. Meanwhile across the Atlantic Ocean the World Rowing Beach Sprint Championships were hosted in Barletta, Italy.
The NRC’s took place on Quamichan Lake, the home of the National Training Centre, and were hosted by Rowing Canada Aviron in conjunction with the Maple Bay Rowing Club and Rowing BC. In addition to crowning National Champions, the event served as an important regatta for national and provincial rankings, which can be used to determine National Training Centre invitations, NextGen athlete rankings and camp invitations, and Sport Canada Athlete Assistance Program and provincial funding. Athletes competed in either their provincial or club colours, giving National Team athletes a chance to re-connect with their rowing roots.
A total of 184 entries from 37 clubs from across the country took part in the regatta, including 27 entries who competed for Row Ontario. The athletes competed in men’s and women’s singles, lightweight singles, and pairs, as well as three women’s para and two men’s para rowing categories over the three-day regatta.
Ontario athletes delivered strong performances in the able-bodied categories, winning 11 of the 18 medal spots. The women’s single featured an Ontario sweep, as Carling Zeeman, Jenny Casson and Shannon Kennedy claimed the gold, silver and bronze respectively. In the men’s single, Liam Smit of BC won gold, followed by Ontario’s Steven Rosts and Michael Ciepiela in second and third. In lightweight singles action two Ontario athletes earned gold, as Jill Moffatt, who recently qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics along with Casson in the lightweight women’s double, took home first place after finishing 14 seconds ahead of her closest competitor, Karissa Riley of Alberta, in the lightweight women’s single. Stephen Harris claimed his first national championship by winning the men’s lightweight single race by three seconds over BC’s Giancarlo DiPompeo.
The men’s pairs saw the BC duo of Jack Walker and Joel Cullen win gold, while the Ontario pairs of Cody Bailey/Jakub Buczek and Gavin Stone/Will Crothers finished one second apart in the silver and bronze medal positions respectively. BC continued their strong performances in the pairs in the women’s division, with Piper Battersby and Caileigh Filmer winning gold. Two composite pairs finished in the second and third, as Maya Meschkuliet (ON) and McKenna Simpson (BC) claimed silver and Kirsten Edwards (BC) and Alexis Cronk (ON) took home bronze.
In Peterborough, the 52nd annual Head of the Trent Regatta took place from the Trent-Severn Waterway on Saturday and Sunday. The always popular head race saw 54 clubs and 573 entries over two days of a jam-packed schedule, which featured a mix of university, club and alumni races in a wide variety of boat categories in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
In club action, the host Peterborough Rowing Club tied with the Ottawa Rowing for the most gold medals won with seven. The Leander Boat Club and Don Rowing Club were next on the gold medal tally list three, followed by the Argonaut Rowing Club with two. Eight other Ontario clubs claimed one gold medal, including the Ridley Graduate Boat Club, Hanlan Boat Club, South Niagara Rowing Club, Havergal College, St. Catharines Rowing Club, Kingston Rowing Club, London Western Rowing Club and Toronto Sculling Club.
With the OUA Rowing Championships now under a month away, 13 Ontario university rowing programs took part in the HOTT, offering a preview of the type of action to come in St. Catharines on Oct. 27-28. The Western Mustangs narrowly topped the university gold medal standings with six, followed by the Brock Badgers (5), McMaster Marauders (5), and Queen’s Gaels (4). Other Ontario university programs earning golds were the Trent Excalibur (2), Toronto Varsity Blues (1), Ottawa GeeGees (1), Guelph Gryphons (1), and Carleton Ravens (1). The university races consisted of varsity, junior varsity, novice, and alumni divisions.
As the domestic rowing action in Ontario and BC was taking place, five of Canada’s top coastal rowers were competing in Barletta, Italy at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Championships. What was originally scheduled as a three-day event, turned into the four-day regatta when water conditions proved too rough, even for beach sprints, on Sunday. The action from Barletta was postponed mid-way through the programme on Sunday and wrapped up on Monday morning.
Ontario was strongly represented at the event, led by veterans Aubrey Oldham (Leander Boat Club/Don Rowing Club) and Sarah Pidgen (Don Rowing Club) who each competed in the men’s and women’s solo events and teamed up for the mixed double. Dennis Ovidyenko (Queen’s University/Don Rowing Club) competed in the U19 men’s solo and teamed with John Liu (Hanlan Boat Club) in the U19 men’s double, while Liu also teamed with Ella-Rose Duval (Club d’aviron de Montreal) in the U19 mixed double. Duval also competed in the U19 women’s solo. The seven Canadian boats gamely battled the competition and the waves but were eliminated in the knockout stage prior to the quarterfinal rounds.
For full results from the NRC’s, visit RegattaCentral
For full results from the Head of the Trent, visit RegattaCentral
For full results from the World Rowing Beach Sprint Championships, visit World Rowing
For the full regatta schedule in Ontario, visit the Row Ontario website.
Picture is property of the Liu Family.
