The first stage of the Student Rowing League summer season - St. Petersburg Golden Oars - took place last weekend in Sestroretskiy Bay. The first start of the season in rowing was attended by 32 teams from all over Russia. The rowing team of Volga Region University of Sports and Tourism was represented by Daniil Savchenko, Rakhat Duisekenov, Roman Kondrashin, Alexander Kupov, Daniel Istomin, Daniil Olenev, Dmitry Drozdjuk, Kuanysh Bekbembetov and Pavel Mokrushin (helmsman). The competition was held on a one-on-one basis with elimination.
On the first competition day at the longest distance of 5000 meters the team of the university climbed to the second step of the podium, behind paddlers of the Magnitogorsk Nosov Technical University. Nosov. In third place is the home team of St. Petersburg State University.
On the second day university students took revenge on representatives of MGTU named after Nosov, winning in the 200 meters distance. Students of Don Technical University came in third.
As Vladislav Karfik, coach of the SSC Sports Training Centre and manager of the Volga Region University Rowing League team, said after the race, the boys showed real sportsmanship.
"The first race was a handicap, our boat was in the first pair, like last summer's leader," Vladislav Karfik says. - Everybody looked up to our rowers, we set the pace of the race. And the team from Magnitogorsk didn't waste a chance, which gives a handicap, not allowing us to see the opponent's net time. They shortened the distance to our boat as much as possible. Our goal was, despite a renewed line-up with, for example, Daniel Istomin entering less than a month old, to take first place. However, second place only fuelled us and our desire to win the sprint."
The 200m sprint took place in five races. And in each of them, the University of Sport and Tourism team was stronger than the competition. "Based on my experience of competing in this distance as a member of the student figure eight, we knew that the result of the winners would be around 36.10-36.20 seconds. Our men did their best and went through the 200 m in 36.06, 0.62 seconds off their opponents. This is considered a big break for this distance, for which I congratulate our rowers," said Vladislav Karfik.
