Edirne eyes hosting European rowing fest
EDİRNE
The northwestern province of Edirne applied to host 2024-25 European Junior Rowing Championships, the officials have said in the opening ceremony of the 2nd Edirne Rowing Festival held on the Meriç River.
“If we can succeed in getting the chance to host the championships, it will be a first for the country, but we have strong opponents,” Erhan Öztürk, the head of the Turkish Rowing Federation said.
The opponents are cities from Czechia, Germany and Italy, said Nesim İba, the president of the TED College Rowing Team, noted and said: “But we will pull the rivals down and get the tournament.”
Around 300 athletes from 16 national teams joined the rowing festival this year.
The festival is another chance for the city to promote itself in sports, other than oil wrestling, football and basketball.
“Edirne is on the road to becoming a city of sports. Apart from rowing, we also aim to hold a rugby and a motocross tournament,” Edirne governor Kürşat Kırbıyık said at the rowing festival which he remarked is an “important fest.”
“I hope that Edirne will be one of the first Turkish cities that comes to mind when talking about rowing,” he added.
Levent Avat, the head coach of Fenerbahçe Rowing Team is pretty sure that the Meriç River can easily be the place to host a European or a world rowing championships. “This is the second time we have come to the city. The crowd here is enormous,” Avat underlined.
Their rivals, Galatasaray, also give a thumbs up for Edirne.
“A very good racecourse is waiting for us,” Galatasaray’s head coach Onur Kayacan said before the start of the races.
