13 September 2022
By Göran R Buckhorn
The 2022 World Rowing Masters Regatta in Libourne, France, ended this weekend. The regatta had 3,200 athletes competing in 622 races.
“It has been a fantastic regatta,” Ronald Chen, chair of World Rowing’s Masters Commission, said in a statement published on World Rowing website. “After a disruption of two years because of the global pandemic, the organising committee has really made it work and we were all happy to be together again. The World Rowing Masters Regatta is a boost for many athletes to train throughout the season. They come to make friends and a lot of them are already planning to make new crew combinations for next year.”
The Masters rowers compete in different age groups and each race is a final. There are individual races for men and women, but also mixed events. The rowers are everything between novice rowers to former Olympians.
The largest event was the men’s F single sculls (60 years or older), which had 18 finals. Denis Crowley of Commercial Rowing Club in Ireland had the fastest overall time, 3:54.71, over the 1,000-metres course.
The members of the Octogenarian Active Rowers Society (OARS) – rowers 80 years of age and older – were honoured on Friday. The oldest man racing at the regatta was Odilon Maia Martins of Brazil, who is still racing at an age of 93. Well done, Sir!
To see the full list of results, click here
Next year’s World Rowing Masters Regatta will be held in Tshwane, South Africa, from 21 to 24 September 2023. It will be the first time the Masters regatta will be held in Africa. For more information about the regatta, please click here.