Trakai praised for masters regatta

In it‘s 35th year, the World Rowing Masters Regatta continues to flourish. Sunny skies and warm temperatures made for excellent conditions over the four days of racing at the Lake Galve venue in Trakai, Lithuania.

The regatta began with an official opening inside the Trakai Castle on the main Lake Galve island. As well as being a tourist attraction, this castle has become a rowing landmark as it signifies to rowers competing on the Trakai course that the finish line is near.

Masters rowers also got to enjoy watching viking boat races on Lake Galve. But the real reason these rowers, aged 27 through to 89 years old, came to Trakai was to race.

Over 1300 rowers registered with the oldest registered rowers came from around the world and included Charles Eugster,89, from the Fairmount Rowing Association, USA, Richard Bales,83, from the Bairnsdale Rowing Club, Victoria, Australia, Kotaro Horiuchi,82, who raced in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games and Bill Cameron,77, from the Ancient Mariners Rowing Club, USA.

At the other end of the scale just 12 rowers aged 27 years old competed.

Crews from Germany were well represented throughout the regatta and in the format of heats only with first place in each heat winning a medal, German crews managed to lead the way as the country with the biggest medal haul.

This is the third world class rowing event to be hosted by Lithuania. In 2002 Trakai hosted the World Rowing Junior Championships and in 2006 they hosted the World University Rowing Championships.

For results go to: http://www.fisamasters2008.com/