Press release
Latvia wins HELCOM Trophy
Riga, 27 August (HELCOM Information Service) - The Latvian team won the HELCOM Trophy at the Helsinki Commission's 14th annual rowing boat competition, held today in Riga, following the international pollution response exercise BALEX DELTA 2009.
Six teams representing oil spill response vessels from Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) took part in this year's HELCOM race. Each team consisted of four rowers and a helmsman. The total racing distance along the Daugava River was around 300 metres. The boats were divided into two groups for qualifying races.
A very tight race in the first group (Finland, Latvia and Sweden) was won by the Latvian team. The second to cross the finish line were the Finns. The Lithuanian team, which was competing with Poland and EMSA in the second group, also won the qualifying race, followed by the EU team.
In a dramatic final race for the first and second place, the Latvian team in the last 50 metres managed to pass the leading Lithuanian team and win by one boat length. The Finnish team finished first in the competition with EMSA's team for the third and fourth place.
Fourteen HELCOM rowing boat competitions, including this year's, have been held since 1990. The race has been won six times by the Swedish team, twice by Finnish, Lithuanian and Polish teams and once by Latvian and Russian teams. The next annual HELCOM Trophy rowing boat competition will be held in Klaipeda, Lithuania - the host of the HELCOM BALEX DELTA 2010 oil pollution response exercise.
Winners of the HELCOM Trophy rowing competition:
2009 (Riga) - Latvia
2008 (Kaliningrad) - Russia
2007 (Tallinn) - Poland
2006 (Gdynia) - Finland
2005 (Karskrona) - Sweden
2004 (Warnemunde) - Sweden
2003 (Helsinki) - Sweden
2002 (Liepaja) - Lithuania
2001 (Rönne) - Lithuania
2000 (St. Petersburg) - Sweden
1998 (Gdynia) - Finland
1996 (Karskrona) - Poland
1991 (Rönne) - Sweden
1990 (Gdynia) - Sweden
Note to Editors:
The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution.
HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.
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