From The Gold Cup Instagram

15 September 2021

By Göran R Buckhorn

No, we are not out of the woods yet, Göran R Buckhorn writes.

Earlier this week, the Gold Cup Challenge Foundation announced on social media that the 2021 Gold Cup Series has been cancelled. This means that there will not be any Gold Cup, US Lotman Challenge, Blackwall Duling Challenge and Hoffman Challenge in October.

The foundation writes: "With the fluid nature of the COVID-19 Delta variant and the complexity of coordinating international and domestic athletes, we determined this was in the best interest and safety of both competitors and spectators."

Sadly, this is the second year that the Gold Cup Series has been cancelled due to COVID-19. The foundation writes that they are "heartbroken and frustrated that we are canceling our events two years in a row."

It was in 2011, the Gold Cup restarted after Herb Lotman, founder and CEO of Keystone Foods, bought the Cup after it had been found in an antique shop in Philadelphia in 1996. The ownership became a legal matter, which came to an end in November 2010, when Lotman bought it and gave it back to the Philadelphia rowing community. HTBS was the first "media outlet" to report of Lotman's purchase of the pot.

The Gold Cup Challenge Foundation remarks on social media that, "we have always been more than a race. The Gold Cup Series is a celebratory experience and we are already looking forward to having our biggest celebration in 2022."

Fingers crossed!