ACT ROWING ASSOCIATION

The entire ACT rowing community will unite at the weekend in a bid to assist the family of one of its most dedicated administrators.

Greg Welsh, who had been Treasurer of the ACT Rowing Association for seven years, died of a heart attack on 31 January 2004 aged just 50.

The Greg Welsh Memorial Regatta will be held to raise funds for Greg's family, particular his daughter Suzannah and her partner Michael.

The couple spent $4,000 each when returning to Australia from Canada for Greg's funeral.

Suzannah rowed in the Canberra Girls' Grammar School first eight and in the ACT Academy of Sport talent search squad in the late 1990s.

The Memorial Regatta is being held tomorrow, Saturday 3 April, on Yarramundi Reach, with the finish near the tree house at Weston Park.

Funds will be raised through entry fees from the many clubs and schools that have pledged support for the Welsh family.

Despite the official ACT regatta season having finished with the state championships two weeks ago, a total of some four hundred rowers and scullers will race, in events ranging from single sculls to eights.

A number of novelty events are being held, including father and son and mother and daughter double sculls races.

ACTRA board member Nick Hunter says that as well as fulfilling his role as Treasurer, Greg Welsh was a member of the association's Panel of Boat Race Officials.

"He had also been Treasurer of the ACT Paralympic Committee for many years," Hunter says.

"There are therefore a very great number of sportspeople in the Territory indebted to Greg for his contribution to sport, and saddened by his passing."

The regatta is being held on a pointscore basis. The club amassing the most points will win the Ernst & Young trophy, donated by the company in memory of Greg, a former employee.

From 2005 the trophy will be award to the winner of the schoolgirl eights at the ACT championships.

Saturday's regatta begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends at mid-day.

Note to media: Access to the regatta is through Weston Park. Further regatta information will be available at the course finish, near the tree house.

Released by Robin Poke, 0408 687 104
Media contact: Nick Hunter, 0412 268 753