Stories

We are delighted to be one of the charities chosen to benefit from this year’s Lord Mayor’s  Appeal.

The Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2012 will help five charities, the primary being Barts and The London Charity on behalf of the Trauma Unit at The Royal London Hospital. The Rowing Foundation, London Youth Rowing, Fields in Trust and Futures for Kids will also benefit, creating a healthier future for all.

Lord Mayor David Wootton’s chosen appeal theme ‘Fit for the Future’ aims to promote better health opportunities for all, including those from some of the UK’s most deprived areas such as Tower Hamlets where shockingly 50% of local children live in poverty and where infant mortality is double the national average.

2012 will see the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee as well as the London Olympics and Paralympics so it’s an ideal time to make sure that we are all ‘Fit for the Future’. The money raised through the appeal will touch the lives of many by helping to improve trauma care, helping to relieve poverty and hardship and by giving young people from deprived areas new sporting opportunities.

To find out more and get involved please visit www.lordmayorsappeal.org

We ran both the Adaptive Indoor Rowing and the Indoor Rowing Event at the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games at the weekend.

It was a great success and Havering took the overall title – Great work to everyone that got involved and volunteered on the day – we couldnt have done it without you – many, many thanks!

Results:

Full details from the London Youth Games website

http://www.londonyouthgames.org/documents.asp?section=131&sectionTitle=Library&doctype=0001300000013002&page=5

Victorious Havering team!

From Tai Sodeyi, LYR Rowing Coach

With approximately a year to go to London 2012, The Olympic Development Authority (ODA) teamed up with the East London Business Alliance (ELBA) to create the One Movement Events. The first held in Mile End Stadium on Saturday 25^th June 2011.

One Movement events are a series of free large-scale events where teenagers get the chance to try indoor rowing, archery, basketball, judo, rock climbing, cycling and tennis among other activities. Participants could also sign up to local sports clubs to help build a lasting sporting legacy among young people, inspired by the Olympics.

These events form part of a wider programme, called In the Parks, which aims to increase sporting participation among young people living in the five Olympic host boroughs and to support the development of local sports clubs.

Festival goers heard from urban artists, enjoyed dance performances and sports showcases from East London clubs and organizations including London Youth Rowing. The LYR team was assisted by 2 volunteers from the Mossbourne Academy in Hackney who gave of their time to ensure the event was a success.

Each participant was encouraged to row for 2 minutes to see the furthest distance they could achieve. Prizes were then awarded to the furthest distance in each year group. All age groups were encouraged to have a go and a good time was had by all.

From Penny Cuthbert, Development Officer

“On one of the hottest days of the year so far I was asked to help out with a bunch of 6^th form students from Burlington Danes School in Hammersmith who have been taking part in a new venture. They are trying on water rowing at University of London’s Boathouse which is situated on a lovely stretch of water near Chiswick bridge.

With help from some of the students down there who were having their last outing before decamping to Henley Royal Regatta tomorrow, all the young people got out in boats, some in the newly delivered EXPLORE ROWING boats.

The summer is almost here, which means it must be time to book on to one of our ever popular Summer Rowing Courses. Please go to our holiday programme page to find out more about our courses. Once you know which week and which venue you want to attend click here to book. Once we have your completed form we will be in touch for payment. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Some of our venues will book out quickly so don’t delay, book today!

NJIRC is one of the biggest Sport events I have ever been invited to. After competing within the Westminster Borough competition and coming second place in sixth form and first place in year 12,  I, along with some Year 7-9 Westminster Academy students got invited to the National Youth Rowing event and had to compete against most challenging athletes in the country. It was my first visit to the National Rowing Championship, and this year it was very challenging having to compete against some students from rowing clubs who have been training for years. Overall, the atmosphere and the business of the event made it so exciting and motivating to achieve the best result possible and to aim for higher results in the future. We made sure support was always there, team work is key and gives the spirit of success! Although we did not get into first – third place, Westminster Academy is improving year after year in terms of its ‘Rowing’ results, and students including myself always enjoy the sport and will try our best in making sure we get enough training to compete again in 2012. My favourite part of the event was watching the boat relay races, and I was amazed by the spirit of teams working together. Overall, I came 31st which I am proud of having to compete against some of the best rowers in the country. It was a fantastic day!
Carlos El- Hajj
Westminster Academy

LYR is one of four smaller charities that have been chosen by Alderman David Wootton, the next Lord Mayor of London (2012) to benefit from the proceeds of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2012.  LYR will be working with the future Lord Mayor’s office and the fund-raising team of Barts and the London Charity (the primary beneficiary) to maximise revenues from the Appeal.  See David’s website for more information.

Yesterday saw the 5th annual National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships take part in the new venue. We moved from Central London to North East London to a state of the art sports facility – the Lee Valley Athletics Centre.

Its normally home to the top flight of British Athletics but yesterday they were overtaken by approx 1670 competitors from across the country. The venue was packed, all there to compete, support, coach and cheer on the friends, athletes and sons and daughters. There was an amazing atmosphere from the very start.

We got off to a flying start with the longest individual races of the day, the 2000m distance. Those GB Athletics heroes didn’t seem to mind that we and 80 Concept 2 rowing machines had moved in overnight, proven by the Olympic Gold Medallist Christine Ohuruogu coming over to join us and even hand out some medals before she began a training session!

She wasn’t the only celebrity to join us, both the Oxford and Cambridge Crews came and helped cheer on the athletes and also Mark Hunter who won a Gold Medal at Beijing came along to help present Medals to the lucky winners.

Katherine Grainger, the three time Olympic Silver Medallist who is also a trustee of London Youth Rowing when not doing her day job was also able to join us. We are really lucky to have someone like Katherine who always agrees to come and help out when training allows and lots of young people got to meet all our ‘celeb’ athletes and get autographs etc…

Special mention has to go the Boat Race Winners. King Edwards School Witley and Plymstock SSP won the Girls Relay and the Boys Relay respectively. The medals were presented to them by the Cambridge and Oxford crews. They then had to toss a coin in true Boat Race style; Plymstock SSP won and chose to follow the Oxford v Cambridge Race and King Edwards get to follow the Isis v Goldie Race on March 26th on the River Thames. They will be ‘driven’ in boats from the Royal Marines and truly unforgettable day awaits for all of them

All the results are available on the NJIRC 2011 section of this website. We will be adding photo’s and images from the Graffiti Wall too in the next couple of days. Please also ‘like’ London Youth Rowing on Facebook and you will get access to lots of inside tips, extra news items and photo’s etc…

Much thanks goes to Concept 2 as ever, the work that they put in to help us deliver these events is amazing and the always manage to do it with a smile on their face – incredible – thanks guys.

Thank you also must go to the 140 strong team of volunteers who cam and worked solidly for the whole day – we truly couldn’t do it without you.

So, thank you for entering, and to those who came along, cheered and shouted all day.

See you in 2012!!!

Thanks

Matt

Liam Downes, from the Mossbourne Rowing Academy, has received an offer to study at Cambridge University. As long as he achieves his predicted grades, Liam will go to Pembroke College to read German and Latin next year. This makes him the first person from one of LYR’s programmes to be offered an Oxbridge place.

His rowing coach, Ben Cox, saw Liam’s potential as a rower from when he first gave it a try, two and a half years ago. Ben still coaches him now and says “ I have enjoyed working with him so much. His powers of concentration apply as much to his rowing as to his academic ability.”

Over the last two years, Liam has been invited to GB training camps, has won a bronze medal at the National Championships and has also won several sporting awards in school and across Hackney. His intention this year is to row at Henley and to be as prepared as he can be for rowing at Cambridge.

Our camera follows the Globe and Royal Docks rowers upstream on their final day of their training camp on the Thames. After a week of fabulous weather, the group decided they needed an adventure to finish off their week of training.

So they left Trafalgar Rowing Centre and pulled upstream to the Pool of London. For some of the participants, this was the first time they had rowed on the busy river.

Timing matters

Penny Cuthbert, who led the camp, said: ‘ Getting onto the water can be quite a tricky operation, at Trafalgar, one of the fastest points on the river. The wash really hits the dock when large passenger boats zoom by. You need to get your timing just right!’

The Globettes and Members of Royal Docks RC took it all in their stride and managed to both boat and return without any upsets. Their reward was some spectacular views of the city as well as a really good training session.

‘Everyone was totally exhausted from the day’s outing but we all got an awful lot out of the week in preparation for the Junior Inter-regionals in a few weeks time,’ said Penny.