News

Birmingham Schools IRC 08

Tuesday 1st July saw one on of the most popular and competitive school events of the year in the form of the annual Birmingham Schools Indoor Rowing Championships which this year was led by the new Competition Management team. Nearly 40 schools descended on Nechells Community Sports Centre during National School Sports Week bringing with them over 650 pupils from all corners of the city to compete both as a team and individually. This was the third time that the Birmingham Schools have set up a mass indoor rowing event for their students, and the events continues to develop every year.

Teams of four competed over 2000m in a relay style with the aim of covering the distance in the shortest possible time. Individuals raced according the to Amateur Rowing Associations (ARA) guidelines as appropriate to their age. Highlights of the day include the new British record set by James Davies in the year 8 category and the dominance of the Colmers School who finished in the top 3 of every eligible event bar one. All the results are available to view at www.concept2.co.uk/schools/bsirc08.php

Not only were pupils able to compete against their peers but also gain valuable tips from the ARA coaches who were in attendance to run coaching clinics for pupils throughout the day. This all contributed to a fantastic spectacle of indoor rowing and reinforces the huge role that rowing now plays in school sport within Birmingham.

Indoor rowing has been introduced into over 100 primary schools and almost every secondary in the Birmingham area, with each secondary having at least 5 machines. Funding for these machines has come from projects with Heart of Birmingham teaching PCT, Steve Redgrave Trust, Sport England and School Sports Partnerships with the support of Birmingham City Council.

The success of the event and the scale of the projects reflect the commitment of the Birmingham area to benefit their pupils through the participation, healthy living and competition that indoor rowing provides.

Thank you to all of the partners that made the day such a success:

• Concept2
• Birmingham Competition Managers
• Amateur Rowing Association
• Birmingham Schools Rowing Association
• Nechells Community Sports Centre

Competition Managers Indoor Rowing Programme

The programme was targeted at Year 10 pupils that currently did not take up opportunities for competitive sport at school. We wanted to give them the opportunity to try new sports/activities that they had had the chance to try out. Those that attended were not currently engaged by traditional team based sports and not represented their school in a competitive event before.

For more information please click here.

Prostate UK on Board for Rowathlons

Prostate UK have teamed up with DB Max Events as title sponsors of the remaining two events in this years rowing triathlon series - where the usual triathlon swim is replaced by a row on a Concept2 ergometer.

The Prostate UK Castle Combe Rowathlon will be held at the Castle Combe race circuit on August 10th and the Prostate UK Reading Super-Sprint Rowathlon will take place on August 16th at the Palmer Park Athletics Stadium.

Prostate UK fund medical research into prostate disease and also training for healthcare professionals - in the last two years alone, they have trained over 1,100 GPs and Practice Nurses. They also actively campaign to raise public awareness on all prostate diseases, through events such as their Pants in the Park runs and with free leaflets and other literature. It’s a little known fact that nearly half of all men suffer from some sort of prostate disease later in life and DB Max Events aim to help Prostate UK create awareness of the problem through their upcoming races.

The remaining two rowathlon events, along with the Trybike Mallory Park Rowathlon held in May, will make up this years series and the best two results from three races count towards the series score. So, theres still everything to play for in the Prostate UK Rowathlon Series 2008.

Kent Disability School Games

Sevenoaks School hosted 27 schools from across the county of Kent who came to celebrate and take part in the Kent Disability School Games.

Indoor Adaptive Rowing took part for the first time in this event and with 7 schools competing was one of the nosiest on offer.

Young people competed over a 1 minute row, after which they were divided into groups of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Heats were then held in each category, rowing either 2 minute, 3 minute or 4 minute pieces. The top 6 young people then went on to row in a Final in their category.

The day saw some close and exciting races with competitors who experience a range of disabilities producing some fantastic results.

1. Jack Arnold
2. Jack Gunning
3. Stephen MacKenzie

1. Karl Ruoff
2. Naomi Barry
3. Thomas Hallett

1. Robert Peters
2. Simon Moon
3. Ali Davidson

Thanks must firstly go to the competitors for keeping a sensible pace and taking part for the first time. Secondly to Alistair McKean, GB Rowing LTA 4-, and good luck for the Paralympics may you have great success. Thirdly to Kent County Council, and Kent Sports Development Unit, for putting such a great event for all children across Kent. Finally, to Dover Rowing Club, Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club and the Amateur Rowing Association for all your help, lending of equipment and support for the event.

Race The Sun 2008

On Friday 4th July 136 Arnold Hill students took part in a sponsored triathlon event – all in the name of charity.

Race the Sun is a unique event held in The Lake District every September where teams of 4 must complete cycling, hill climbing and canoeing sections - starting at sunrise and finishing by sunset.

This has fuelled the idea of running a ‘mini’ Race the Sun at Arnold Hill School on Friday 4th July as part of Sports Week. The race was intended to introduce the idea of triathlon to our students (with running, cycling and rowing), encourage teamwork within tutor groups and competition between them as well as raising sponsorship money. The sponsorship money raised will be split between Action Medical Research and the schools Brazilian Fund (to support our partnership with a school in Recife).

The 34 teams from Years 7-9 all managed to cover between 16 and 35 miles across the 3 disciplines in the 3 hour event. So far, students gave handed in a whopping £1200 and the sponsorship continues to pour in.

Well done to all those involved. We look forward to holding a similar event next year and thank everyone for their support, especially Concept 2 who loaned us 20 rowing machines for the day.

Callum Jones - World Record

Callum Jones – is 12 years old attends Belvoir High School, Bottesford, and is a member of Newark Rowing Club. He started indoor rowing at Bingham Toot Hill School in September 2006. Within two months he had won a gold medal at the BIRC, followed by wins in the Welsh Indoor and English Championships. He joined Newark Rowing Club and has had some success with the club in regattas across the country in coxed quads, pairs and recently in single sculls. In 2007 indoor rowing he was bronze medallist at BIRC, took gold in the Welsh Championships and silver at the National IRC at Battersea. As part of continuing assessment of training progress, under the guidance of their coach Claire Parnell, each month the junior rowers at Newark row a timed 2km on the Concept2 ergo. During the spring Callum was achieving gradually improving times culminating in his unofficially breaking the under 13 years world record in June 2008.

On 7th July 2008 in order to attempt to have the record verified and ratified as an official record Callum rowed 2km at Concept2 headquarters in Nottingham. His clubmate Nick Parnell of Newark RC sat alongside him on an ergo to keep Callum focussed on the job and to giver him someone to chase. It was very close and very tense but the result was that Callum broke the world under 13 record by half a second in 7 mins 12.7secs. The record had been set by Marian Uroic of Croatia in 2004, Callum also bettered the British record by 2.8 secs which had been held for nine years by Rob Francis of Hereford RC.