I'm afraid it might seem to some that this has become a rowing blog, as the last three posts have had la voga alla Veneta as their subject, but this is the last in the series, as it features images of the adult races from yesterday's Regata Storica.
Our 12-year-old son and his partner did not place in their junior race, but they had a good time and our son was especially thrilled that before the competitions began he was able to row down a good stretch of the Grand Canal by himself (as well as race down it later with his partner).
The images are grouped in the order that the adult events took place: first, the Regate delle Caorline a Sei Remi, then the Regata delle Donne su Mascarete a Due Remi, then the Regata dei Gondolini a Due Remi. In the brief intervals between these races were a series of two boat heats--with the boats rowed backwards--between university teams from Ca' Foscari (in Venice), Roma, Padova, and Trento (and this is the order in which the teams finished). An image of this appears in this post after the six caorline man race and before the two man gondolini race.
Masks were mandatory along the route of the regate for spectators (not everyone kept them on, despite periodical reminders by police passing by in boats), and in the case of the university teams you'll see that the coxswains wore face shields to protect their crews from any germs their exhortations might carry with them (and a good thing, too, as the coxswain picture below, with the Ca' Foscari team, I believe, was particularly vehement).
Final results of the races can be found here.
I'll put up one more post about the Regata Storica, but the next one will focus on the pageantry rather than the rowing.
Thank you, Steven, for this report on the race. Beautiful pics showing perfectly the effort of the rowers. Congratulations to your son for participating at 12!
ReplyDeleteWhat is the name of the university teams' boats? They look big and heavy. Bissona? How many rowers? Eight plus one coxswain? With boys and girls together?
Don't hesitate to continue sharing such pictures of boats, rowers and lagoon.It's so much a part of Venitian life.
You're welcome, Auvraisien. I seem to recall there are 7 rowers in the university boats + 1 coxswain, all women, but I don't know what the name of the type of boat they row is, and though the race results identify by name each of the other types of boats used they do not for the university boats. I've always assumed they aren't even traditional Venetian boats, but used in other parts of Italy. I always imagined them used in lakes, but I am probably wrong about that. I'd have to check to be sure, but in past years I thought the university crews were made up of both men and women together, but perhaps I'm misremembering.
DeleteYou must have been laying down for some of these shots! Go orange team!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, HKB, for some of them I was, and holding the camera nearly at arms' length fairly close to the water's surface and using the flip screen electrical viewfinder to (not always successfully, alas) frame them.
DeleteGreat shots, looks like a perfect day for the races and photography. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt was a really great day for racing, Kent, without the strong wind and threat of storm that threatened the junior divisions' time trials the weekend prior.
DeleteYour son must have really enjoyed his day, and you must have been rightly proud of him. It all looks fantastic. Sadly the nearest I've ever been in Venice to the Regata Storica is being there at the end of September several years, so I've always missed it, but it looks as if a really good day was had by (almost) all. Thank you again ... you can never include too much rowing for me!
ReplyDeleteHe really did, Ella, and it made me understand why he says he never wants to live anywhere else--though I think we will. The Regata Storica is important for a lot of residents, less so for tourists in general, as it actually helps to have some connection to some of the people participating--one rower, for example, is a fishmonger in Castello, another one I know from the gym I used to go to, another is a friend who's a fire fighter, another works at the bank I go to. Professional sports are so ubiquitous that only here did I realize the pleasure and thrill of truly local athletics, which I've come to enjoy much more than those performed at the "world-class" level. But if you get a chance to see it, I think you'd enjoy the Regata.
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