News & Press archive for May, 2010

On the hottest weekend so far this year, more than a dozen young people a came down to the Lea RC to take up the challenge of rowing on the water for the first time.

The participants were aged between 13 and 17. They had all had rowed on machines in the past, making up a good part of Barnet’s indoor rowing squad for the London Youth Games.

The on water session lasted three hours. During this time, all the learners had the chance to try rowing on a sliding ergo, a tub 2x and a tub 4x+.

All the participants had a great time and said they learned a lot from the day.

Many of them are  now thinking of taking rowing further and were very interesting in the details of the LYR summer courses.

Much thanks must go to the TSG officers that gave up their time to help coach and organise the day.

Dan Cooper, Lea RC Head Coach

Some of Lea Juniors' winners show off their medals

Two weeks after their  Spring Regatta, the Lea RC Junior Section found another fistful of medals when they  travelled to Dorney Lake, Eton to compete in the Ball Cup.

The day before the race many of the athletes stayed behind at the club after they had finished their training to help out on the Saturday afternoon coaching on the Learn To Row course.  After that, all hands were on deck to de-rig four singles, three doubles and a coxed quad and load the necessary equipment onto the trailer.

After an early start on the Sunday morning (5:30am at the Club!) the trailer left for Dorney followed by 13 athletes and a convoy of parents. Still, many hands make light work and this was proven by how well the day ran.

Special thanks has to go to all the parents and junior athletes that helped throughout ; the day really sped along and all of the racing athletes received fantastic support.

Our  rowers really excelled at the Ball Cup. Seven of the 10 Lea Juniors boats made it through to the finals and the eighth missed out by the width of a bow ball .

In the end,  Lea RC Junior Section left Dorney with two gold medals courtesy of Ellie Booth (WJ13 1x) and Dan McAteer (J13 1x) and three silvers; Neil Connell (J15 1x), Katie Jessop and Elizabeth Johnson (WJ14 2x) and Dan McAteer and Harrison Skinner (J13 2x).

This event proved that the hard work that these and many other athletes at the Lea RC have put in over the last year is really starting to pay off.

Everyone agreed afterwards that it been a grand day out!

Dan Cooper

Winning Thames Juniors celebrate a job well done.

The 24th of April marked the beginning of the 2010 regatta season, and the first of many opportunities for the junior squad. It’s also the first chance for  those long cold months invested in winter training to be finally put to the test.

Entering nine events in junior and senior categories over a 1400m course, the competitors often doubling or tripling up, the announcer repeated the sentence “And it’s another win for Thames” over the loudspeaker numerous times.

Out of the 9 events entered, ranging from Intermediate 3 singles to women’s Junior quads, 6 of them brought home the first pots of the summer,as well as the first punches in the British rowing cards.

As the remaining crews rowed into Thames under a beautiful summer evening’s sunset, and as the last few races saw the final pots of the day being collected by the Thames scullers, there was a general sensation of  relief and a job well done amongst scullers and coaches.

All in all a very good start to the season– with many more successful events to follow I am sure.

Paul Jones

Katie Jessop and Lizzie Johnson in their winning J14 double

The Lea RC Junior section was out in force to represent their club at their home regatta on the 25th of April.

The Lea Spring is a great regatta for novices and those competitors that are just starting to compete – so much so that it was recently featured in an article in Rowing and Regatta magazine.

The day started ominously with big black rain clouds and torrential rain. With clubs coming from as far afield as Weybridge, Maidstone and Sudbury, everyone started praying for sunshine and it worked! By the start of the second division the sun had come out and a great day of racing was had by all.

The Globe and Docks were underrepresented as they had gone up to Nottingham for the interregional championships. But Lea Juniors were out in force..

Dan Cooper said:

“Even with a few scratches on the day, we fielded fourteen singles, six doubles and two quads. That’s a total of 22 boats, with 23 athletes competing over 15 different racing classes!

This all led for a busy but enjoyable day of racing. Some athletes (Heather, Eli and Florence)were racing for the first time and only after having only completed the Learn To Row programme less than six months previous  while others (Liam in IM2 and Abdul in  J16) raced above their age to find competition.

In the end, Lea Juniors also came in with their fair share of wins. Their winners included

• Ansir Uddin (J16 single)
• Natasha Linyard  (WJ17 single)
• Dan McAteer  (J13 single)
• Neil Connell  (J15 single)
• Hannah Peacock (WJ14 single)
• Katie Jessop and Lizzie Johnson (WJ14 double)

The day was a great success and a big thank you to all of those volunteers that helped get the many athletes and boats organised and also to those juniors that helped out throughout the day making the regatta run so smoothly. Special thanks to some of Lea Juniors who helped out on stake boat duty,  like Paul Steeley, Eli Mendel, Florence Buckwell , Liam Downes and Lottie Hudson

Our next race is the Ball Cup on the 9^th of May 2010.

Go to our fan page to see more photos from the days racing. http://www.facebook.com/#!/LondonYouthRowing?ref=ts

Lea Juniors gather before the Big Event

We’ve recently received the following from Liam Downes, writing from Gavirate in far northern Italy, close to the Swiss border

Dear Thames Charitable Trust, LYR and Clifford De Souza,

I am writing on behalf of myself and the other London Youth Rowing athletes who attended the Easter Training Camp in Gavirate, Italy to thank you for your contributions towards it. We had an absolutely spectacular time whilst we were there.

The training camp consisted of three sessions a day. The general pattern was one long session, one technical session and one speed work session. By the end of the week this was very difficult to maintain as the fatigue from each session built up gradually over the week. In spite of this, I can honestly say that we all came on leaps and bounds from the excellent coaching we received from Patrick Ryan and Dan Cooper.

We were lucky enough to have a conversation with three of the GB men, who were also training at the facility . This gave us some great insights on what professional rowing entails and just how hard it is to maintain a standard once you have reached it.

As we are all working towards some sort of qualification in May/June we had to do at least three hours of work a day. As onerous as that  was, I am certain that it was beneficial to all of us.

As you can appreciate, training hard and working hard left little time for socialising.  So when we did have that time available, we certainly made the most of it.  I know I certainly forged friendships with people that I wouldn’t usually and I think it was a really good opportunity for the London Youth Rowing clubs to bond.

If I were to pinpoint the highlight of my week I would struggle greatly, as I loved pretty much every moment of it and I am sure the same can be said for many of the other athletes. However, below I have chosen some pictures which I believe represent exactly what the training camp was like and show some of the best bits.

Once again, thank you for your contribution as none of this would have been possible without it.

Yours Faithfully,
Liam Downes