With the Head and Tail of the Gorge races now over, the rowing world will shift their attention to the Canadian University Rowing Championship, which is 10 days away.
The best male and female rowers from across the country will make their way to Elk Lake, the birth place of the event, for two days of gruelling competition.
Fleets of rowing shells will arrive from across the country towards the end of the month to be ready for when the course opens for two days of training on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.
Seeding time trials begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning (Nov. 2) and run until 3 p.m. with boats rowing every 10 minutes. The time trials determine which boats will compete in the A and B Finals for their designated classification on Sunday, Nov. 3.
Athletes competing in events will range from Rowing Canada Aviron national team athletes that have represented Canada at the Senior World Championships, U23 World Championships, Pan-American Games and the Canadian Henley Regatta. Men and women will send forward 14 athletes per gender to race in six categories: open singles, lightweight singles, open doubles, lightweight doubles, open eight and lightweight fours.
Athletes will be crowned champions of specific events and a point system is in place to reward teams based upon how they finish in each category. By the end of competition, the school with the most points will be crowned national champion and take home the 23rd CURC banner.
The list of schools competing is still being determined, as the deadline for entries is Oct. 24. Last year, UVic went up against boats from the University of British Columbia, Queen’s University, Brock University, Western Ontario University, the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto, the University of St. Francis Xavier, the University of Ottawa, Laurentian University, the University of Guelph McMaster University and Trent University, to name a few.