News & Press archive for February, 2009

E13mix is the first youth club in the Row East London! project to have received their brand new Concept 2 rowing machines and have already started putting them to good use.

Saturday was the official launch of indoor rowing at the youth club in Newham and lots of the members turned up to see how they could get involved in rowing.

With an indoor rowing competition running all day it was a chance for the members to show how good they were using the new race programme and to get signed up for the E13mix Fit Firm!

On Thursday 12^th February London Youth Rowing hit the North of London for the Barnet Indoor Champs!

Five local schools arrived with their teams to compete for the title of Barnet Champions. Expectations were high, with Hendon School bringing some past champions of their own!

The day went very successfully with some fantastic results for many of the individuals involved!

Overall, it was Hendon School who redeemed their title, but many new competitors from Ravenscroft, Henrietta Barnett, Whitefield and St Michael’s showed real strength and potential.  There is going to be a real shot at success for the North at London Youth Games…….Watch this space!

Many thanks to John and Gemma for organising the event and to Hendon Leisure Centre for use of their facilities.

Barb enjoying the sun at LYR Summer Programme

Barbara Couperthwaite has just won ARA Young coach of the Year 2009. We first met Barb when she came along to one of our indoor rowing training days. She was so enthusiastic and keen in all aspects of rowing that it wasn’t long before she had signed up to go on a level 2 course run at Lea RC.

She worked hard bringing Benenden School onto the water and coached in her spare time for Bewl Bridge RC’s juniors. She approached us in the early summer with an offer we couldn’t refuse …to volunteer coach for the 3 weeks of our summer course. Of course we leapt at the chance. She moved to London for the 3 weeks and joined in with not only the day job of getting kids in boats but also LYR nights out and weekend Regattas in Suffolk. She was great to have on the team. She made a friend of everyone in the team and often took up the challenge of coaching the more demanding students. We hope it is not too long till she is back in England and knocking on our door.

Well done Barb for getting the award. You deserve it!

Simon Goodey tests out Channel boat

Major Phil Packer was injured in an incident following a rocket attack in Basra. As a result of the accident he lost the use of his legs and is now a paraplegic with what are classed as catastrophic injuries.

In order to raise money for other injured soldiers, Phil is completing a chain of challenges. The list of challenges are;  Rowing the Channel, skiing, basketball, parachuting, horse-riding, a swimming challenge, a climbing challenge, sailing, flying, gliding, athletics, archery, shooting, urban abseiling, F1 driving, the Gumball Rally, Scuba Diving, tennis, weightlifting, power boat racing and being the first paraplegic in a reasonably priced car on Top Gear (if they challenge him!).

In preparation for his Row across the Channel, he spent some time at the London Regatta Centre this week, getting in some valuable practice under the careful supervision of Adaptive Coach, Simon Goodey. Simon jumped at the opportunity to have a go in the boat that is to be used to cross the channel.

Phil will set off from Folkstone, Kent this month. Best wishes from all at LYR!

31^st January was a day of great results for LYR’s Performance Programme. More …