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