Russian team wins HELCOM Trophy

Helsinki, 1 September (HELCOM Information Service) – Russia’s team won the HELCOM Trophy at the Helsinki Commission’s 13th annual international rowing boat competition, held on 28 August in Kaliningrad, Russia, following the international pollution response exercise BALEX DELTA 2008.

Seven teams representing oil spill response vessels from Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), took part in this year’s HELCOM boat race. Each team consisted of six rowers and a helmsman.

The total racing distance was 920 meters. The boats which were divided into two groups had to start from a berth, reach a buoy 460 meters away, go around it and race back.  

The race in the first group (Denmark, Lithuania, Russia and EMSA) was opened with an amazing spurt from the Russian crew, whose boat took a winning lead from the start. Despite an incident when one of the crewmen broke an oar and had to quickly replace it with a spare supplied on board, the Russian team was the first to cross the finish line, recording a time of 7min06s. The “silver” result was shown by the Swedish team (7min15s) which was competing in the second group (Finland, Poland and Sweden). And the third best time was posted by EMSA’s team from the response vessel Otilia (7min43s).

Thirteen HELCOM rowing competitions including this year’s have been held since 1990. The race has been won six times by Swedish teams and twice by Finnish, Lithuanian and Polish teams. 

The next annual HELCOM Trophy rowing competition will be held in Latvia – the host of the HELCOM BALEX DELTA 2009 oil pollution response exercise.

Winners of the HELCOM Trophy rowing competition:

2008 (Kaliningrad) - Russia 

2007 (Tallinn) - Poland

2006 (Gdynia) - Finland

2005 (Karlskrona) – Sweden

2004 (Warnemünde) – Sweden

2003 (Helsinki) - Sweden

2002 (Liepaja) – Lithuania

2001 (Rönne) – Lithuania

2000 (St. Petersburg) – Sweden

1998 (Gdynia) – Finland

1996 (Karlskrona) – Poland

1991 (Rönne) – Sweden

1990 (Gdynia) – Sweden

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel:  +358 (0)207 412 635        

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi