PRESS RELEASE
7th March 2007
The Boat Race is watched live by thousands of young Londoners every year, and by millions country and worldwide on TV, yet how many youngsters have ever tried rowing? The organisers of The Boat Race are keen to encourage young people from all backgrounds to get involved in rowing and have teamed up with London Youth Rowing (LYR) to stage the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships (NJIRC) to further this goal.
With The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race taking place at the end of the month, the aim of the event was to give a competitive focus to the thousands of young people all over the country taking part in the fast-growing new sport of indoor rowing, and to inspire them to try on-water rowing through the involvement of the Boat Race athletes.
The premier event was The Boat Race Relay. Raced over 6,780metres (The Boat Race course) the winners earned a prize “money can’t buy” – following the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race from the water.
As well as the individual races and team events NJIRC also played host to The Boat Race Crew Announcement. Mid way through the day, the two University Presidents introduced their crews to the worlds press and TV crews. The crews stayed on to meet many of the competitors and cheer them on in their races.
As well as many young people from London and the South East, over 200 young people traveled down from an Indoor Rowing initiative based in Birmingham, as well as squads from South Wales, Manchester, Plymouth and Jersey in the Channel Islands. The record for travel to the event was undoubtedly set by Fasila Hussein who traveled from Chennai in Southern India to compete!
The quality of racing was extremely impressive- all year groups raced – over varying times and distances according to age – which made for a really exciting and full race schedule that entertained spectators throughout the day. There were medals for all category winners, as well of the generous prize of a new Concept 2 rowing machine awarded to the winning boys’ and girls’ teams of the Sprint Relay.
The premier titles of Boat race Relay Champions 2008 went to Reading Blue Coat School (boys) and the T & T Gals from Nottingham and Tees (girls). In true Boat race tradition it was down to the flip of a coin to decide whether it was the boys or girls who got the top prize. Reading Blue Coat School called it and won the incredible prize of following the Oxford and Cambridge boat race on March 29th in boats driven by the Royal Marines. T & T Gals didn’t go away empty handed – they will follow the earlier race between Isis and Goldie – truly prizes that money just can’t buy!
Howard Jacobs, CEO of The Boat Race Company Ltd said: “It’s great to see so many kids having fun and competing. You don’t have to be a rower to be good at it, but I hope many of them get out on the water and give that a try too!”
Full results are available from the www.londonyouthrowing.com website.