44th Hong Kong Rowing Championship

WORDS: ABI WATT AND JOEY WONG | IMAGES: KAREN CHAN

Over the weekend of 29 and 30 October, the Rowing Section competed in the 44th Hong Kong Rowing Championships; the biggest fine rowing event of the year. With more than 50 rowers competing across different boats, the RHKYC team competed against athletes from universities, the Hong Kong Sports Institute, and international teams alike.

After a season initially marred by the months of lockdown at the start of the year, the rowers had put in countless early morning training sessions up in Sha Tin in the past six months. With the arrival of two brand new Filippi 8+ racing shells – the first new boats of this size to grace our boathouse in over a decade – the team was eager to take to the water and put the new equipment to good use.

The 44th Hong Kong Rowing Championships were the perfect place for everyone to put their hard work to the test.

Led by Head Rowing Coach Ognjen Cato, the RHKYC team enjoyed some hard-earned success over the two-day regatta that saw Junior, Open and Masters rowers all taking home hardware in a wide range of events. All of that success culminated in the club winning the Hong Kong, China Rowing Association 40th Anniversary Cup, awarded each year to the team that wins the highest number of gold medals in the Open events.

On Saturday, the team raced in qualifying heats for the Open events and finals for Masters events. The women’s crews came away with gold medals in the Masters B W2x, Masters C W4x, and Masters B W8+. The men’s crews earned gold medals in the Masters B and Masters C M8+, Masters D M2x, Masters E M2x, Masters B M4x, and gold and silver in the Masters C M4x.

Sunday saw all the Open races decided, with the RHKYC having an especially good day in fair conditions. Junior member Chiu Hin Chun won in the M1x, where RHKYC had two boats in the final, and the team also walked away with gold medals in the M4x and M8+ on the men’s side. The women’s crews also had a strong showing, taking both gold (a composite crew with RHKYC and Lok Tsui Rowing Club rowers) and silver in the W8+. The team also took silver in the W4x and gold in the W4- with a composite RHKYC & LTRC crew. Junior rowers from the youth development programme won silver in the W4x+.

In this year’s brand new International Time Trial event, raced over 2k, Chiu Hin Chun won gold in the Open M1x, Lam San Tung won silver, and Chan Yuk Man put in a strong performance to place 4th overall. Mark Welles earned a gold in the Masters B M1x, and Hui Wing Ki walked away with a bronze medal in the Open W1x.

Not only adult, but our youth rowers also participated and archived great result in the 44th Hong Kong Rowing Championships.

Nine youth rowers aged 14-17 were sent to participate in 3 different events, U19 Women’s 1x, U19 Men’s 1x and U19 Women’s 4x+. All of them train regularly under our Youth Development Programme and became competitive to compete in the Hong Kong Rowing Championships.

On race day, the condition was rough, strong wind plus strong current. However, our crews Cayenne Mather, Nicole Tang, Maya Lee Trudeau, Natasha Pizzala and Jeannie Leung managed the race very well and did an amazing job in the final, finished 2nd in the U19 Women’s 4x+ event.

Same day, two brave girls, Chloe Shim (in lane 5) and Stephanie Capol (in lane 4) competed in the International Small Boat Championships (ISBC) which was introduced for the first time in the Hong Kong Rowing Championships. ISBC was different from all other regular events, scullers started at approximately 60-second intervals, every athlete became the focus of the venue. During the race all eyes were on Chloe and Stephanie, it was windy but they both did great to focusing on every stroke to complete that 2,000m at Shing Mun River.

A big congratulations to all crews as we transition into winter training and look ahead to the 2023 rowing season!