NextGen Partnership
The NextGen program is a development pathway that provides athletes with training opportunities in their province while engaging with RCA Development programs. In 2023 the ARA entered into a partnership with RCA with each entity agreeing to commit resources towards the development of Alberta based athletes.
To date Alberta’s involvement with the program has been largely behind the scenes working with RCA officials in identifying athletes through the RBC Training program. In 2025, the ARA will expand this program in providing programming that is in alignment with RCA’s development pathway. Under the guidance of Alex Marchuk the ARA will provide training opportunities to select athletes across the province. The program will be geared towards athletes who demonstrate an ability to compete at one the following events.
- Athletes who have met the requisite standard to represent Alberta at the 2025 Canada Cup.
- Athletes who demonstrate the ability to represent Alberta at the 2029 Canada Summer Games
- Athletes who demonstrate an ability to represent Canada at the 2026 or 2027 U23 World Championships
While details associated with the program will not emerge until early May, the ARA is hoping to implement this program by June 1, 2025. Athletes who wish to be considered for this program are highly encouraged to have a 2K score that they are satisfied with no later than May 15, 2025.
2025 ARA Rowing Camps
The ARA will be hosting two camps in 2025. The first of which will be hosted by the Central Alberta Boat Club (CABC) on Friday May 30th and Saturday May 31st, 2025. The CABC camp will be the first on-water event in Central Alberta and the ARA could not be more excited. The camp itself will be largely geared towards athletes under the age of 21. Registration details will be forthcoming in the next two weeks.
The second on-water camp will be the Lakeland Rowing Camp which will take place from July 18-20, 2025. The 2025 event will once again be open to athletes of all ages and skill levels and are expecting this year’s event to be the best yet. We hope that everyone will mark these dates in their calendars and come out to Lacombe and Vermilion to participate in these events.
Canada Cup Update
The ARA is excited by the high number of athletes who have met the erg deliverable to date, and notes that a number of athletes are inching closer every day. To provide some motivation to those who are nearing our erg standard the ARA has agreed to loosen its erg requirement for invite to the selection camp by 5 seconds. The new erg standards are as follows
Heavyweight Men 6:45
Heavyweight Women 7:45
Athletes have until June 10, 2025 to achieve this standard. To those who have met the standard – congratulations! Details on the upcoming Selection Camp will be provided to you individually by the middle of May.
Brown Cup:
The Brown Cup is an annual race that sees men’s and women’s crews from the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria compete against one another over a nearly 4km course. While the race involves crews from outside of Alberta both schools are heavily reliant upon athletes from Alberta to make up their varsity teams. This year six Alberta athletes (Gaby Worobec, Gaby Yarema– UBC Varsity Women, Kaliya Javra, Gabrielle Kieser– UVIC Varsity Women – Andrew Hubbard & Sam Ree – UVIC Varsity Men) competed in the varsity races. UBC ended up winning both races. Race coverage can be found via the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W06JOdekfXQ&t=1487s
Rowing Stories:
Not so much of a story this month, but more of a clip of a unique rowing challenge. To think we have it tough rowing 2K. Something interesting and unique to change things up. Take a look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O_zfPXdEdE
Upcoming Events:
On-Water Season commences at clubs across the province at the end of the month.