RSU students and employees demonstrate excellent results at the international indoor rowing competition Concept 2

On 27 January Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) students and employees participated in the internationally-renowned indoor rowing competition “Alfa 2018”, held in Tallinn for over 20 years, this year bringing together over 500 athletes from 54 different sports schools and clubs from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Ukraine and Byelorussia. This is the largest and most prestigious indoor rowing competition in the Baltic region. RSU employees and students returned home with 21 medals and four cups.

During an indoor rowing competition the distance is mastered on rowing ergometers where using special software the movement of boats is displayed on a screen, also displaying the average speed and the distance to be mastered to catch the leaders.

At Alfa 2018 RSU was represented by four teams – two men’s and two women’s teams, competing both in the student category and also in the strongest – sports club category.

The elite group was represented by a number of Olympic athletes who have won Olympic medals in academic rowing. 1st place winners in men's and women's elite groups set new world records in 1000-meter distance and in 500-meter distance in the team competition.

RSU women's team I won gold medals and a team cup in the sports clubs category, RSU women's team II finished the race in second place, won silver medals and a cup in the student category. The strongest RSU men's team won third place with just 0.4 seconds behind the second place and our students’ team came home with bronze medals. Overall, RSU students and staff brought home 21 medals and 4 cups in different categories.

As indicated by the head of the Department of Sports and Nutrition, Associate Professor Voldemārs Arnis, RSU teams have already been training on rowing ergometers for two years and have successfully participated in numerous competitions. Of 16 team members, only 5 have previous rowing experience. To design a training plan, we test the aerobic power, maximum capacity and power indicators of each athlete. Team members with no previous rowing experience also learn rowing basics (technique). RSU sports club trainer Mārtiņš Markovs is actively involved in attracting new team members. The weekly training programme includes at least three different high interval-training sessions and three different strength and resistance workouts. The intensity of interval training is calculated individually for each team member and set on the basis of test results and the latest scientific discoveries.