Cornish Indoor Rowing Championships 2012

March 19, 2012

[newsimage=0]The Cornish Indoor Rowing Championships was held at Newquay Sports Centre on Sunday 18th March. The event was run by British Rowing with equipment kindly lent by Newquay Tretherras and Newquay Treviglas Schools. It was a day of great competition, featuring junior races, adult 2000m challenges, 500m sprints and a team relay.

First up were the junior races. Year 7 rowers, Kian Andrews and Jess Van Baalen (both from Hayle school), rowed the furthest in 2 minutes in their event. Karriad Shawcross and Cameron Dennis both competed in the Year 8 competition over 3 minutes. The Year 9 female race was the closest of the day with Harriet Wallace of Newquay Tretherras beating Elizabeth Stacey of Caradon Gig Club by only 2 metres. For Year 10, Elysia Gregory and Will Stacey both achieved high scores over 5 minutes, scoring 93% and 94% respectively.

Following the junior races the adults competed over 2000m. Six ladies competed in a race that included five gig rowers, four from Newquay and one from Caradon. Mel Flynn took the women’s heavyweight race in 7.46, Jenna Paul (pictured) the women’s lightweight in 7.56 and Alicia Henderson the 16-18 category in 8.21.

After some extremely close racing in the men’s category, gig rower Simon Newton took the men’s heavyweight prize with an impressive time of 6 mins 16. The lightweight (LW) equivalent was won by Adam Bolton with a time of 6.42. The 40-49 LW by Paul Sawyer (7.18.6), the 50-59 LW by Guy Rolston (6.57.4) and the 60+ LW by Ted Taylor in 7.18.3.

Matt Brewster took the Adaptive Legs, Trunk and Arms category completing 2000m in 8:36. Matt was competing as part of his charity attempt to complete 2,012 arm powered miles in 2012 and you can find out more about his challenge at www.justgiving.com/teams/matt2012.

Once the competitors had got their breath back a total of 17 rowers completed a 500m sprint challenge. Competing for fun prizes, the £2 per person entry fee will be donated to Matt Brewster’s charity attempt. Simon Newton won the men’s category with a time of 1:19.9, Alicia Henderson took the womens with 1.49.3. In the junior categories, Callum Mackellar won with a time of 1:36.4 and Elysia Gregory in 1:58.4.

Four teams competed in the final event of the day over 2012m in a four person relay. Team ‘Headless Chickens’ from Newquay Rowing club won this closely fought battle in 6 minutes and 3 seconds, team ‘Guinness for Strength’ came in a close second, followed by a scratch team in third and Caradon juniors in fourth.

Indoor rowing competitions are taking off across the country and we’re already looking forward to next year’s championships! Huge thanks to Newquay Sports Centre for hosting the event.

Pictures and results can be seen on the ‘Cornish Indoor Rowing League’ facebook page. The Cornish Indoor Rowing league involves monthly challenges and we are very grateful to Seasalt clothing have sponsored the 1880m challenge in March. To find out more please contact [email protected]

Follow Rhiannon, British Rowing’s West Region Participation Team Leader, on twitter: @RowWestRegion.

If you’d like tips on improving indoor rowing technique and times go to www.rowactiv.com to sign up for British Rowing’s new i-Phone app.