The first rowing regatta held open for all levels of athletes
- 90 boats participated including prestigious college teams from overseas and MBC “Ultimate challenge team” of celebrities.
- The regatta enhanced popularity of the rowing and rowing athlete’s racing performance in Korea.
STX Cup Korea Open Regatta was successfully held at Misari Rowing Venue from July 30 to August 2 with ninety boats participated in. The sponsor of Korea Rowing Association, STX Corporation ran the Regatta with the aim of giving chances of racing to all athletes, such as high school students, college students, complete beginners, masters and elite athletes in order to make the sport of rowing more popular in Korea.
On the opening day of the Regatta, it was more like a festival for both rowers and spectators. Races on this day attracted athletes of high school boat club, adult boat clubs and college boat clubs. For master races, master teams of Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and Boat clubs of Tong Yang securities and STX Corporation participated. For sprint games of 500 meters, elite athletes of nineteen teams raced against each other.
Following this, novice race of Eight 8+ of rowing teams of prestigious colleges (Oxford University, Melbourne University, Waseda University, Keio University, Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies), and the celebrity team of “Ultimate Challenge team” of Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation’s TV entertainment show was the most noticeable in terms of popularity and mass attention given to it. Only the opening day attracted approximately 35,000 spectators surrounding the Misari venue. For this race of eight+, the Melbourne University team won the race and the celebrity team recorded the eighth of the eight teams. However, a great number of news media in Korea reported that their pain-taking efforts of learning rowing and building up team work for the last months reflect true spirit and value of rowing to people, hard work and unity.
President of Korea Rowing Association, Jong-Chul LEE said in a statement that “I want this regatta would remark the turning point for the sport of rowing to be a popular sport among people rather than merely enjoyed by by athletes in the past and for this purpose, Korea Rowing Association will lead the way to more popularity of rowing and building relevant infrastructures of rowing”.