The fifth tourist rafting regatta was held on the Vrbas River, and the emphasis was on the safety of water sports.
Citizens, athletes and journalists from Banja Luka, Jajce, Novi Grad participated at the rafting regatta.
All activities related to this year’s tourist regatta are part of the preparations for the upcoming World Rafting Championship, which Banja Luka will host in 2023.
Banja Luka politicians spent Sunday on or by the water. However, Draško Stanivuković and Mladen Ilić were not in the same boat, but they said there will be opportunities to row “downstream”.
“My motto in life is that when a person experiences and feels something, the person realizes the beauty and charm of something. Only then, if the person deals with a business such as politics, can he/she have a greater sensibility to invest in it, to understand that and to fully support the people who are passionate about it,” said the mayor of Banja Luka, Draško Stanivuković.
“I enjoyed it, I found out more about the procedures in this sport and for over a decade I have enjoyed Vrbas numerous times,” he said, emphasizing that Vrbas is both an obligation and a duty of all of us to take care of it as one of the city’s symbols.
The project started as an environmental initiative
The President of the Assembly of the City of Banja Luka, Mladen Ilić, said in a statement to the media that this project started as an ecological initiative within which the riverbed of the Vrbas River was cleaned in previous years, from Krupa na Vrbasu all the way to the Canyon.
“This year, it is in a slightly different form, as a tourist destination, to further clarify what rafting is, which is one of the symbols of Banja Luka,” he said.
He expressed his belief that this sport will continue to develop in the coming period.
“We have one opportunity, the World Rafting Championship in 2023, and in such a project we must all show unity,” said Ilić.
Everyone should understand the significance of Vrbas River
On behalf of the organizers of the regatta – RK “Kanjon”, Aleksandar Pastir said that everyone should understand the importance of Vrbas and that together we should work on protection of this river.
Speaking about the World Cup in 2023, Pastir announced over 100 teams, emphasizing that everyone wants to come to Banja Luka.
“What is important to us is to promote safe rafting, as we are doing today, so that as many citizens as possible like it and know how to use the equipment,” he pointed out.
This year’s regatta was preceded by the training of skippers, and one of the participants, Anđela Vranješ from RK “Kanjon”, points out that, so far, she has passed the theoretical part of the training, which primarily refers to the importance of water safety.
“We also learned about the ways of rowing, and about the sports and tourist part of rafting. Since I grew up on the Vrbas, all of this is very interesting to me”, concluded Vranješ.
Photo: N1
Source: akta.ba
