Rowing On Dry Land!
On Sunday 22 January RGS Worcester rowers took part in the annual King’s School Indoor Rowing Championships.
The event was well attended with over 220 young sportspeople competing in a series of individual events and team relay sprints during the day. Rowers from throughout the region participated, including teams from King’s School, King Edward’s School Stratford, Cheltenham College, Hereford Rowing Club, Stratford upon Avon Boat Club and Worcester Rowing Club. The venue was arranged with two big screens and two banks of rowing machines where the rowers battled on land.
The RGS Worcester team of 63 rowers from Year Seven through to the Upper Sixth raced in a variety of different formats, ranging from 500 metre sprints to 2000 metre races and relay races. Indoor rowing relays consist of the race distance being set at 2000m and the rowers rapidly changing over to complete the distance as quickly as possible.
RGS Worcester rowers were victorious in the Sixth Form Boys’ 2000 metre relay race, and this team were also the fastest relay team of the day with a time of 05:57.9. There was further relay success for the Year Seven Girls’ relay, Year Eight Mixed relay, and Year Eight Girls’ relay crews. RGS Worcester were also successful in the individual race formats with Menna Sutton winning the Sixth Form Girls’ 2000 metre race and Lucy Whiteley winning the Year Eleven Girls’ six minutes race.
A special mention goes to the Year Seven and Year Eight relay teams who performed extremely well following lots of practice in their lunchtime indoor Rowing clubs. Mr Messent, Mr Tuckwood, Mr Hales, and Mrs Whiteley were on hand to provide support for the teams throughout the day. Mr Messent, Head of Rowing, commented: “All the coaches were extremely proud of the effort that the rowers put into the racing and delighted with the medals won on the day”.