NRC 2024
Congratulations to Team Alberta on an incredible performance at the 2024 NRC Regatta in Welland, Ontario. Team Alberta finished the event as the grand champion outperforming our peers from British Columbia and Ontario. In a province that is covered by ice for over 6 months of the year and has a significantly smaller population base than our neighboring provinces, Alberta rowing is certainly hitting above its weight. Consider the following:
- Alberta had the largest number of registrants at the regatta. In total 28 athletes represented Alberta at this year’s event, a remarkable presence when we consider that this year’s event was held in Ontario.
- Alberta athletes returned home with 10 medals, more than any other province.
- The 10 medals won by 16 different Alberta athletes was a record, bettering our previous best performance of 9 medals from the 2021 NRC event. In 2023 Alberta took home a total of 7 medals.
- Alberta had 11 different athletes row in an “A” final. The last time the regatta was held in Welland, back in 2013, there wasn’t a single Alberta athlete in an “A” or “B” Final.
- Four athletes represented Alberta in the final of both the Men’s and Women’s pair event
- Alberta won medals in every able body discipline (Men /Women) sweep and sculling events.
- Four Alberta athletes returned home with a gold medal.
NRC Medal Winners are as follows:
Gold
Axel Ewashko (Composite Crew with Row Ontario)– Senior Men’s Pair
Kai Elrich – (Composite Crew with Western University) – U23 Men’s Pair
Addyson Byomen and Georgia Skeans – Junior Women’s Pair
Silver
Grace Turner and Julia Hill – U23 Women’s Pair
Monroe Larochelle & Tryne Mamen – Junior Women’s Pair
Karissa Riley – Women’s 1x
Bronze
Albert Harkema–Men’s 1x
Elena Tsigozis & Mia Lastovka – Junior Women’s Pair
Archer Larochelle & Angus Robertson – U23 Men’s Pair
Diana Davis & Ali Hart – U23 Women’s Pair
In summary an incredible achievement by Team Alberta. Congratulations to all athletes who participated and special thanks to our coaches, Alex Marchuk, Pascal Ferraro and Scott Brown. Also, a special work of thanks to Audra Vair who represented Alberta as an official at the regatta.
September Recap
- Congratulations to the University of Calgary on hosting a successful Dino Sprints regatta on September 28th. The Dino Sprints regatta has grown over the past decade to become a can’t miss event on the rowing circuit here in the prairies.
- In September of 2024 a group of Master athletes from the Calgary Rowing Club travelled to Brandenburg, Germany to compete at the World Masters Rowing Regatta. The group of athletes finished 13th overall out of 741 clubs and recorded six 1st place finishes. Congratulations to all.
- Great to see a number of athletes who are new to the sport of rowing, participating within one of Alberta’s three university programs – University of Calgary, University of Alberta and Lakeland College.
Marketing Initiative
With the upcoming Olympic Games now a memory and water turning to ice the ARA is pleased to release the second of its rowing videos. The second video focuses on attracting new participants to our sport through indoor rowing. We ask that everyone take the time to share the videos that will be posted on the writer’s Instagram page.
Rowing Stories with Credit to World Rowing
Yauheni Zalaty – The single sculler, originally from Belarus, had qualified for the Olympic Games in September 2023 – however had to wait 9 months to know if he was eligible to compete under the IOC criteria. The challenges didn’t stop there. A couple weeks before travelling to Paris it was not clear if he could get his boat to France, as the Polish Government changed their regulations on 1 July including a general ban on such sports equipment coming in from Belarus. Despite providing the necessary documentation at the Polish border, his shell could not leave his home country. He had to fly to France, not knowing if he could find a suitable boat for him – a specific model, from one of World Rowing’s official suppliers. After searching all over Europe, with the help of World Rowing, the IOC and several national rowing federations, a boat was found, but needed some refurbishing, which was done… a day after he arrived in Paris for the Olympic regatta.
On July 30, a couple of hours before his quarterfinal A/B, Zalaty got a call from home. His wife, Ksenya, had just given birth to their first child, a boy named Mark. Something that Zalaty called “the best victory of his life” and gave him even more motivation to perform, despite being far away from his family. But the best was yet to come.
On Saturday, 3 August, after qualifying for his first-ever Olympic A-Final, Zalaty was on his way from the Olympic village to the Vaires-sur-Marne nautical stadium when the bus he was in, broke down about midway through the trip. The athlete was still stuck on the motorway, when some of the A-Final competitors where already warming up on the water. The decision was made to postpone the A-Final of the men’s single by one hour – which came with no complaints from any of the other five competitors – to allow Zalaty to arrive in time for his “one-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. And Zalaty capitalised on it, with a supersonic last 500m that saw him coming from sixth to second and win a silver medal.
Upcoming Events:
Head of the Gorge / Tail of the Gorge- October 26 & 27 – Victoria British Columbia
Canadian University Rowing Championships November 1-3– Victoria British Columbia
ARA AGM – Red Deer Saturday November 16th