- Tom Aggar, gold paralympian medallist, flanked by three times silver Olympic medallist Katherine Grainger, with Nick O’Reilly, Mayor of Bexley and Frances Houghton two times Olympic silver medallist behind him
London Youth Rowing (LYR) yesterday launched Row East London!, a new physical activity and sports initiative for the ten Olympic and Gateway boroughs1 at the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships in front of over 2000 young competitors.
Row East London! is a scheme designed to encourage more young Londoners into regular physical activity and provide pathways to rowing and other sports.
‘London has a huge population of young people and not enough of them take regular physical activity. In the run up to the 2012 Olympics, we expect projects like Row East London! to get more young people on the path to a healthier lifestyle and to inspire them to take up sport. I would like to see it extended further in London’ said the former Sports Minister, who is now the Mayor of London’s sports commissioner.
Katherine Grainger, triple Olympic silver medallist for Great Britain, spoke on behalf of her fellow athletes who had turned up to support London Youth Rowing – Tom James, gold medallist (Beijing four), Frances Houghton, silver medallist, (Beijing women’s quadruple scull) and Tom Aggar, gold medallist, (Beijing Paralympic single scull).
‘It’s fantastic to see the number of young people who’ve come to take part in the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships and the quality of some of the racing. Row East London! will further swell the numbers from London and maybe some of those will row and one day stand on the Olympic rostrum alongside us. ‘ said Grainger, who is also a LYR board member.
As part of the launch, teams representing each of the ten Row East London boroughs took part in a relay race. Each of the assembled VIPs, which included the Mayors of Bexley, Barking & Dagenham and Waltham Forest, the deputy mayor of Havering, Di Ellis, CBE, Chairman of the Amateur Rowing Association and Howard Jacobs, Chairman of the ARA, were assigned a team to support during the race, with the winning team receiving their trophy from 2008 Olympic gold medalist Tom James.
Row East London! received £628,000 in funding from Sport England. Thomas Godfrey, Sport England’s Commercial Director, said:
“Sport England is supporting the Row East London programme because it will bring quality sporting opportunities to young people in east London. This project is going to use the power of rowing to engage young people in a wide range of sports. Access to quality coaching and competitions will help make sport a life-long habit for the young people taking part.”
The Mayor of Barking & Dagenham jumps on the ergo instead of his missing team!
[...] well-being of young people in the ten East London Olympic and Gateway boroughs. The initiative was launched last week on 17th March in the company of Olympic medalists and Kate Hoey MP. The launch took place [...]