St. John's Regatta ends gender-based rowing distances

Women and men will row the same distances at the Royal St. John's Regatta this summer, for the first time in the race's 203-year history.

Race officials said the regatta this August will no longer have gender-based rowing distances and will include a men's short course of 1.225 kilometres and a women's long course of 2.450 kilometres.

Traditionally, the men's teams only rowed the long course and the women's teams only rowed the short course.

The historic move comes after the race committee elected its first female president and female vice-president team in January.

Rower Nancy Beaton says she was relieved and ecstatic to see the end of different race lengths, calling them sexist and outdated.

Beaton said in an interview she was one of generations of women rowers to vocally oppose gender-based course lengths.

The regatta bills itself as the oldest organized sporting event in North America.

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