Victoria Lake was swamped with people as they gathered to witness this year’s Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) VLC National Sprints Regatta on Saturday and Sunday.
Over 1 000 athletes participated in this year’s regatta, which beat the record of 970 athletes who competed in last year’s event.
Athletes from different schools, universities and rowing clubs came ready and prepared.
Some of the divisions at the event included junior women’s (JW) and junior men’s (JM) u-14 to u-16, men’s lightweight doubles, women’s lightweight doubles, men’s heavyweight doubles and many more.
Some of the schools that participated were St Benedict’s College, St Stithians College, Jeppe High School for Boys, St John’s College for Boys, Parktown Boys’ High School, King Edward VII High School, Diocesan College, Germiston High School, Mondeor High School, Bishop Bavin School, Assumption Convent School, St Andrew’s School for Girls, Holy Rosary School, St Mary’s School, Waverley and Hilton College.
The universities that participated were the University of Pretoria, the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The clubs that participated were Victoria Lake Club (VLC), Ravens Boat Club, Old Dunstonian Rowing Club, Wemmer Pan Rowing Club, Durban Rowing Club (DRC), Viking Rowing Club, Roodeplaat Rowing Club, Guildford Rowing Club, Soweto Rowing Club, Old Edwardian Boat Club, Rhodes University Boat Club and St Alban’s Rowing Club.
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This year was a special regatta as the RMB National Squad used it as part of their selection process to select a team for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
“The game plan is to see who is going to sit in those doubles seats for the Olympics,” said Blake Dyason, client manager at CN&CO, who also manages the RMB rowing sponsorship and public relations.
The first RMB National Squad race was the men’s heavyweight doubles, and in first place were Lawrence Brittain and Kyle Schoenbee.
Brittain has been rowing for 10 years and won a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics, which took place in Rio de Janeiro.
The crowd was excited for the next RMB National Squad race as it was the first time in regatta history that a women’s lightweight double raced against the men’s heavyweight B doubles.
Women’s lightweight double, Kirsten MacDonald and Nicole van Wyk, took top honours in the race.
Roger Barrow, the RMB National Squad coach, was extremely happy with the results.
“I really pushed the women’s lightweight team. I knew they were capable of winning,” said Barrow.
Barrow aims to qualify a men’s heavyweight four and the women’s lightweight double scull boat at the World Cup Two in Lucerne, Switzerland, in May.
“There are normally three World Cups for rowing, but because this is an Olympic year there are only going to be two,” said Dyason.
A total of 175 races were completed during the regatta.
For the full results of the RMB VLC National Sprints Regatta 2020 visit www.regattaresults.co.za.
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