Some of the fastest rowers in international singles sculling will be coming to the Cooper River on Saturday, October 26th for one of the last opportunities to compete against each other before lining up against each other at the Tokyo Olympics. The athletes will compete for the title of best single sculler in the world and a prize of $15,000.
Hannah Osborne (NZL) will be returning to Camden County as the defending Gold Cup Champion. Challenging Hannah will be back-to-back World Champion Sanita Puspure (IRL), 2019 Silver Medalist Emma Twigg (NZL), and 2019 Bronze Medalist Kara Kohler (USA).
The male competitors will include Gold Cup defending champion and current world record holder, Robert Manson (NZL), 2019 Silver Medalist Sverri Nielsen (DEN), 2019 Bronze Medalist Kjetil Borch (NOR), and Olympic Silver Medalist Mindaugas Griskonis (LTU)
“The Gold Challenge Cup Foundation is looking forward to all of our races this year,” said Bill McNabb, Chairman of the Gold Challenge Cup Foundation, which organizes the race. “We have returning superstars and new additions for both the Gold Cup and Lotman Challenge. We are very excited this year to introduce the Blackwall Duling Challenge for adaptive PR singles, as well as a High School singles challenge.”
The Philadelphia Gold Cup is a “sprint” race, approximately 700 meters in length. The race’s shorter length is designed to foster close competition and down-to-the-wire finishes. The race will occur in the middle four lanes of the Cooper River, positioned perfectly to view from the banks along the Camden County Boathouse.
In addition to a previously announced new format to the 2019 Lotman Challenge, as well as the introduction of the adaptive PR1x singles, and a high school singles challenge, the Foundation made the decision to increase the purse for the Gold Cup Challenge Race. Prize money of $15,000 will be awarded to each men’s and women’s Champion, $7,500 for second place; $3,500 for third place and $1,500 for fourth place.
HUDSON (Ontario, Canada) and Concept2 (Vermont, USA) will continue as the official outfitters of the Gold Cup, providing custom boats and oars to the rowers.
The athletes will spend the week training on historic Boathouse Row in Philadelphia and engaging with the community through both youth and adult outreach and education.