Each season seems to roll around quicker than the last, and so it is we are steaming into the 2023-2024 Victorian Rowing Season. For those requiring some context, Australia is a continent sized landmass split into eight states/territories of which seven have rowing races in one form or another. I live within Victoria and am part of the rowing community here. Generally speaking, the competition is distinct between each state, with all of them having their own State Championships. Multi-state racing occurs at the Head of the Yarra, the New South Wales State Championships and the National Championships. Last year saw the National Championships take place in Perth, the most remote location for six of the states to attend. JRN is pleased to be bringing you content from Victoria this year, with a focus on the major heads and regattas in the state and culminating in coverage of the 2024 National Championships in Sydney, New South Wales.
Rowing takes place in Victoria across a variety of locations including Melbourne, Nagambie, Geelong, Ballarat, Hamilton, Bairnsdale, Bendigo, Dimboola, Rutherglen, Mildura and Carrum. This year, the majority of events will take place in Geelong on the Barwon River, Nagambie on the Nagambie lakes regatta course and in Ballarat on Lake Wendouree.
Victoria consists of school and junior rowing, a small section of club and high performance rowing and masters rowing. By numbers Victorian rowing resembles a sandwich (or “sanga”) made of stout bread with a steadily growing filling. The school and masters populations are healthy, and the club rowing scene is building up steadily. Whilst overseas readers will be familiar with clubs and schools such as Scotch College, Mercantile Rowing Club and Melbourne University (of 2023 Henley disqualification controversy), the state has around 50 schools actively rowing and competing, as well as around 25 clubs.
The major events in the state this year consist of: Melbourne Head (3.5kms on the Yarra River); the Head of the Yarra (8.2kms on the Yarra River in 8’s only); The Victorian State Championships (2kms on Lake Wendouree), The Head of the Schoolgirls Regatta (1.5kms on the Barwon River) and the APS Head of the River (2kms on Lake Nagambie). Due to the timing of Easter this year it is unfortunate that the APS Head of the River clashes with the National Championships, potentially limiting involvement for the 11 APS schools in the state.
A quirk of Australian sport is that a large number of juniors will partake in a summer and winter sport. As a result of this, our first race of the season – the Saltwater Classic (a 4.5km twisty steersman and coxes race in quads on the Maribyrnong River in Melbourne) – is often a cagey affair for the schools and clubs competing, with early season line ups disrupted by AFL and Netball finals. Whilst everyone is looking forward to getting back on the water, Saltwater is generally an open race that can be won by anyone turning up on the day. Add into this disruption the twisty nature of the course and the need for expert steering and there are a significant number of factors involved in achieving success. We will be previewing the entries and course in more detail before the event kicks off.
We are excited to be launching into a new season and to be producing high quality rowing content geared at getting everyone in the Victorian Rowing Community up and about and looking forward to each regatta as it comes.
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