Masters rowers gather in Lithuania

Starting races every four minutes will keep officials busy at the 2008 World Rowing Masters Regatta. And these officials will have to do it more than 261 times. Trakai, Lithuania is playing host to masters rowers from 38 nations who have arrived for the start of racing on 4 September.

Germany is bringing the biggest contingent. They have over 90 clubs entered, as well as composite club crews, and the entries include 100 singles over the different categories, 101 doubles and 33 eights.

Racing starts with a short day of 31 heats on Thursday 4 September and concludes on Sunday 7 September when individual rowers can get together to race in mixed events. There are also events for adaptive rowers.

The largest number of entries is in the men’s “C” single with 11 heats. Only heats are raced and the winner of each heat is awarded a medal. The biggest day of racing is on Saturday 6 September. On this day 120 heats will be raced from 8:40 until 17:16.

Held at Trakai’s Lake Galve, this popular rowing spot was the venue of the 2002 World Rowing Junior Championships and is known for its picturesque island castle right by the finish line. The newly renovated venue is also the home of the international Amber Oars Regatta and it was a popular training venue before 1991 for Soviet Union athletes.

Organisers say that numbers are down slightly from previous years but there is still plenty of competition and entries from around the globe including as far away as Argentina and Australia.

Competitors at the regatta include a mixture of those who have recently taken up rowing through to former Olympians and Olympic gold medallists. Some of the crews come together solely for this masters event and have been doing so for many years. They use this regatta as a time to meet up and blow off the rowing cobwebs. Others are regular competitors with training programmes that would rival elite rowers.

To qualify as a masters rower you must be out of elite competition and 27 years of age or over. Events go by age with categories beginning at category “A” for those 27 years old and over and go through to category “H” for 70 years old plus. Rowers often enter in a number of events. At this regatta 1500 boats are entered.

The masters regatta supports junior rowing by donating “1 euro per seat”. This is collected by FISA’s Masters Commission and most recently it meant that rowers from Uruguay and Paraguay could take part in the 2007 World Rowing Junior Championships in Beijing.

For more information go to: FISA Masters

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