26th Annual Great White North Sports Regatta – July 12th 2025
One week later and we’re back downtown for the first race of this season at Marilyn Bell Park. This is the Sports Regatta; the Tim Hortons Challenge will be in September and is a much larger event. And oh. Boy. If we thought the last race was hot, today it was almost unbearably sizzling down at the water.
Today Sharon was subbing for another of coach’s teams: York Torque. Which made for a diverse and large presence because there were 3 teams present today: York, Tribal Maui & Usain Boat! Sharon’s friend Christine was subbing at the Usain Boat camp, so this promised to be an interesting day.
There were so many races to follow…all 3 teams of course as well as the other teams present. It was a 500m and 200m day for Sharon, so thankfully we could leave once they were done and didn’t have to stick around for the 2km. To which I’ll come back later.
It was a very diverse field with some very tight races, and some not so much so. The wind on the water played tricks on some boats, and so did some wayward yacht captains who thought it’d be a good idea to play Uber right on the regatta stretch. I wanted to throw my beer at him.
So after a long day of suffering from near heat-stroke but great fun on the water, we peeled off and were just about to drive away when a message came in: “I think we won a medal?” And yes, York Torque – which is an industry boat (public health sector), won GOLD overall in their league! How ’bout that. Sharon hopped out and ran over to get her medal (unfortunately we missed the ceremony) and off we went, with a big smile.
Let’s go! 
The first boats are out on the water 
Warm-up 
When it was still nice outside 
With Christine, Nat, Vanessa & Umbra 
First race! 
Paparazzi 
Not that many food options but enough for the size of this regatta (there were more scattered around) 
Our corner in the park 
Dry run practice 
Yass 
Thank you for the shade, trees! 
Usain Boat patiently awaiting their turn at Marshaling 
Spectators are not that close to the boats, but it’s not as bad as some other regattas. And this one has a nice backdrop to boot… 
Uber? No. You can’t park here! Tsk tsk tsk 
York Torque being very competitive in the backgronud 
Yup I had a beer. And I chatted with the Announcer for half an hour. Fun! 
Maui on the water 
Look the University teams’ form and speed 
Usain Boat’s team picture 
Usain Boat’s behind picture 
Yorke Torque out for their last race 
Just to show how close some races were 
First medal of 2025!