SPbU at Big Moscow Regatta
The 56th Big Moscow Regatta welcomed as many as 500 students from 12 countries (Macedonia, Belorussia, Ghana, and Estonia to name but a few), among them are the students from St Petersburg University.
The Boat Race we held on the Grebnoy Canal in Krylatsky, Moscow, where during the 1980 Olympic Games the world’s leading athletes fought to win the rowing competition. Today there are three courses that cover 500-, 1,000-, and 2,000-meter stretches. The first two days saw men and women’s single skulls, lightweight men and women’s single sculls, double sculls and coxless pairs, and lightweight men’s coxless pairs. On the final day, the Regatta announced the results in lightweight men and women’s coxed pairs, coxed fours and coxed eights, and lightweight men’s coxless fours.
In the 2,000-meter race, Ilia Kostylev, a student in Clinical Psychology at SPbU, won the first place in the double sculls, who won gold in the Student Rowing League 2016 and bronze in the championship in Russia. “The race was OK, although the weather was rough and we couldn’t show our best, — said Ilia Kostylev. — We had been preparing during three days. All the athletes did well, but our main competitors were we ourselves. Now we are to take part in the championship in Russia and World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland”.
Our students were fierce competitors for the others and showed impressive results. In the 2,000-meter race, Kirill Goriachov, a student in Physical Culture, won silver in the lightweight men’s double sculls, while Elizaveta Valovaia, a third-year student in Physical Culture, won silver and Evgenii Salmanovich, a fifth-year student in Clinical Psychology, won bronze in quadruple sculls.
The results of the Big Moscow Regatta will show who are to become members of the Russian national team to take part in the 2017 World Rowing Under 23 Championship in Bulgaria.
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St Petersburg University is the first university in Russia to develop rowing skills in students and create a student team in 2010, which is regarded as one of the strongest in Russia. SPbU Rowing team has won the European Universities Rowing Championship, Kingston Regatta (UK), Golden Blades of St Petersburg International Regatta, and has been three times in the semi-finals in the Henley Royal Regatta (UK).