The 4th July kicked off with the Adaptive Indoor event.
They came, they rowed, they conquered!
This is the view of all staff, spectators and participants who were on hand to witness the inaugural LYG Indoor Adaptive Event held at Crystal Palace this year. Six boroughs were invited to participate on Sunday 5th July as a pilot, with plans to extend the competition to twelve boroughs in the second year. Spectators and volunteers on hand were treated to a dazzling array of performances from a determined group of athletes who wanted to show what they were made of – and that they did!
“The event gave young people an opportunity to compete in a great arena, in front of a supportive crowd, which is a wonderful experience to boast about!”
Each borough was set a series of four challenges to complete, which would have contributed points towards their total score, before taking part in the finals at Crystal Palace. Coming in to the finals, Lewisham had a slight lead on Hackney with Bexley sitting in third. However, after a series of gut wrenching performances by all the athletes present, Hackney was able to overtake Lewisham in the latter stages and seal victory to become the Balfour Beatty 2010 London Youth Games Adaptive Indoor Rowing Champions!
Tom Aggar, the reigning Paralympic and World Champion in the ASM single scull boat class, was on hand to present the medals to the winning athletes and even he was surprised to see the level of enthusiasm and effort displayed by both the athletes, the spectators and indeed the volunteers who were on hand to make sure that the event was a success. He hopes to be back next year and so do we with an even bigger and better competition for 2011.
The adaptive indoor event was followed by the mainstream event.
Fantastic! That is the only word that comes to mind when trying to describe this year’s Balfour Beatty LY Games Indoor Rowing Championships (Mainstream). The event was held at Crystal Palace after the inaugural Adaptive Indoor Rowing Championships which was piloted for the first time this year.
The event was managed by LYR who ran a series of indoor races dotted with a few celebrity challenges featuring Mr. Anthony Kendall, the Chairman of London Youth Games, Group Managing Director of Balfour Beatty Brian Osbourne, DJ Abrantee from Choice FM, England and Arsenal Ladies’ Footballer Rachel Yankey, Olympic Alpine skiers Chemmy Alcott and Dougie Crawford. Christine Ohuruguru was also in attenace to lend her support.
It was a keenly contested event with 27 out of the 33 London boroughs competing in what is now known as the show piece event for the entire Games. It was a closely fought battle but eventual champions Havering were able to hold off strong challenges from Richmond and City of London who claimed silver and bronze respectively.
Special thanks must go to Concept 2, who along with LYR handled the technical elements of the production but the games would not have been a success if it wasn’t for all the volunteers who gave of their time and effort to make sure that the event was sensational. We look forward to seeing them and you again next year for an even bigger and better LY Games Indoor Rowing Competition.