News of "The Sports World" of the day 19-07-1964

In 1829 the first of the duels took place between the rowing teams of Oxford and Cambridge universities. From 1856 it was when this amateur sports rivalry was given an annual character, in which it has become one of the most traditional and popular sporting events in Britain and has, over the years, achieved a great impact internationally.

Because of the prestige gained in their duels, the remers of Oxford and Cambridge have received numerous invitations to compete abroad but have only attended to them on a few occasions. One of these exceptions took place on 18 July 1964, his presence brought together thousands of people and gave brilliance to the official opening of the international regatta camp of Lake Banyoles in Girona.

Thus a project whose main artist was David Moner (1), a historical Catalan sports leader and very closely linked to Banyoles, at that time young president of the Catalan Federation of Remo and he had in Juan Antonio Samaranch, then delegate of the DID in Catalunya, one of his best allies.

Classic image of the Oxford-Cambridge duel

More than fifty years have passed since the festival with which the leading international rowing track of Lake Banyoles was opened, which consisted of several races in the different rowing modalities. The most significant moment was the outtriber race to 8 with the presence of the teams of the Universities of Oxford and Cambrige and three "ochos" of the best of the Spanish rowing: Ur Kirolak of San Sebastián, the Maritime RC of Barcelona and a combination of remers of Vigo and Sevilla. On the distance of 2000m the race ended with the victory of Oxford which, in the last 1000 m, reached 40 stopades per minute. The "black bues" beat Cambridge in 4 seconds who resisted the harassment of Ur Kirolak that ended third to 14. "The" ochos "of the Barcelona Maritime RC and the Spanish combined came in more late.

Because of its characteristics from that date, the Llago de Banyoles became one of the best European race fields. He became a reference to the international rowing as the scene of numerous world-class competitions including the Barcelona 1992 JJOO.

The existence in its facilities of a Remo Tecnification Centre, with capacity for 80 places, which in addition to being one of the references in the preparation of the Spanish remers, is home to numerous rooms of teams from several countries or clubs including Cambridge students who are regular and frequent visitors. There is the circumstance that since the early 1990s both Cambridge and Oxford, in their winter peparation plan, included stays in our country. The Cambridge people already have a tradition of doing it in Lake Banyoles while Oxford did it for a few years and until 2006 in Ebro waters in Mequinenza (2).

Rowing competition at the Banyoles State

(1) Water polo and rugby player in his youth, Moner (1933 / 2016) soon became involved in management tasks over a long course of six decades. As a sports leader, he presided over the Catalan rowing and swimming federation (1977 / 95), was a member of the TAS and since 1996 he presided over the UFEC until his retirement in 2015 for reasons of age, dying months later.

(2) Since he did not come to the Aragonese town, Oxford has only won in three of the last nine duels.

Text: Juan Manuel Surroco
Blog: http: / / elmargadordejmsurrop.blogspot.com.es /
Twitter: @ SurrocaJM