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Riverview Gold Cup


The Riverview Gold Cup is a Rowing Regatta for high school students, held annually by Saint Ignatius' College at Riverview, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Founded by Father Joseph Dalton, S.J., the founding Rector of Saint Ignatius' College, it is one of the oldest rowing events in Australia and the oldest New South Wales schoolboy regatta. It is held annually, typically in March, on Sydney's Lane Cove River against schoolboy and schoolgirl crews, with the inclusion of club boats in Men's Open VIII.

The "Riverview Rowing Club" was founded late in 1882 under the guiding hand of Father Thomas Gartlan, S.J. The Rowing Club held its first regatta on Sunday 20 June 1885. It was recorded in many of the daily newspapers of the time and hailed as "the first College Regatta in the Colony"

In the 1890 Regatta, a race was instituted called "The Lane Cove Challenge Eights", which grew into the "Riverview Gold Cup Regatta", from which comes the name of the modern day Regatta. In 1892, the Regatta Committee invited the residents of Lane Cove, and others interested in rowing to subscribe to a fund to acquire a suitable Gold Cup, as a trophy for this race. The result is the Riverview Gold Cup, as we have it today. In 1893, the St. Ignatius' Regatta, featured its valuable Gold Cup for the first time. In this year, nine crews fought out the maiden fours, with North Shore winning by two lengths from Sydney, Glebe third, and East Sydney and Mercantile behind. The regatta itself was said to be a great success: "such cheering and enthusiasm has seldom, if ever before, been noticed at an amateur meeting." The winners were also each awarded gold medals and later gold oars, as individual trophies for this event. At the time of its inception, the Gold Cup was looked upon as an outstanding trophy for rowing.

A second regatta was held in November of that year to honour Catholic Bishops, assembled in Sydney for the first Plenary Council. The programme provided for six events, mainly of College crews and their supporters. From this modest beginning, the Annual Riverview Regatta has grown into eighty events today with one thousand competitors and ten thousand spectators through the day.


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