Canada Cup 2025
With the 2024 on-water season now a distant memory, preparations for the upcoming season have begun and a highlight on the 2025 Calendar will be the Canada Cup. The Canada Cup event will be for athletes born on or after January 1, 2005 and will feature provincial teams made up of 8 men and 8 women racing in singles, pairs, doubles, fours as well as mixed quads and eights. The event will be held one week following the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in a location close to St. Catharines, Ontario and will provide a unique rowing experience in that athletes will be given the opportunity to train alongside their provincial counterparts a few days before commencement of racing.
The ARA is committed to sending a strong team to represent Alberta at this event and have begun establishing erg standards to be invited to an on-water selection camp in June of 2025. The selection camp will be by invite only and will be granted to those who meet the aforementioned standards. Final selection to the team will be based via on-water performance in a 1x or 2-. While the erg standards have not been formalized as of yet, athletes should expect the following 2,000 metre erg metrics as a guideline.
Men 6:40
Women 7:40
If you feel you have hit this standard on or after September 15, 2024 please email the writer directly at albertarowing@gmail.com indicating your erg score, the date pulled and the coach witnessing the test.
Canadian University Rowing Championships
The Canadian University Rowing Championships were held in Victoria, British Columbia on November 2nd to 3rd, 2024 The regatta featured a number of Alberta athletes representing schools from on the west coast, the east coast and parts in-between. Alberta athletes taking home hardware from the event included the following:
Louis Ferraro – Bronze for UVIC in both the Lightweight Men’s 2x and Coxed Four.
Kaliya Javra – Silver for UVIC in the Women’s 8+
Gaby Kieser- Silver for UVIC in the Women’s 8+
Gaby Worobec – Gold for UBC in the Open Women’s 8+
Gaby Yarema – Gold for UBC in both the Women’s 1x and Women’s 8+.
A special word of acknowledgement to the University of Calgary Dino’s Rowing Team for qualifying six boats in “A” finals at the Canadian University Rowing Championships. Great job to everyone involved with the U of C program.
Rowing Tidbits
- RADAR Reminder. A reminder to all ARA athletes that RADAR submissions are to be submitted by November 30, 2024. Completion of RADAR is a requirement of provincial carding and thus athletes who forgo the November RADAR submission will not be eligible for funding under the provincial carding program.
- The ARA AGM date is scheduled for Saturday November 16th. The event starts at 10am and will be held at the Red Deer Resort and Casino Anyone who is a member of an Alberta Rowing Club is welcome to attend and have their say on rowing in our province.
- As published, Athletes have until November 15th to achieve the 2K erg thresholds established within the 2024 ARA Provincial Carding Program. However, we will push this out to November 30, 2024 to correspond with the RADAR Submission deadline. Athletes should be informed of their status under the Provincial Carding Program no later than December 10, 2024.
Rowing Stories –
A little over a year ago a reporter from the Saskatchewan Roughriders football team emailed the Calgary Rowing Club looking to speak with me directly. The reporter found my name through some of the work I had done in the sport of rowing and wanted to know I was in any way related to Ernest Simonson. Ernest Simonson was the only known Saskatchewan Roughrider to lose his life in battle during the Second World War. Ernest was in fact my Grandfather and I thank the Calgary Rowing Club for passing this information on. This year on November 11th when we pay pay tribute to Canada’s soldiers who fought to defend the values we hold so dear, I share the story of my grandfather that was published by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2023. The story can be found via the link https://www.riderville.com/2023/11/11/honouring-the-great-sacrifice-of-former-roughrider-ernest-si-simonson/