Sportivate Explores Rowing at Looe Regatta

To celebrate several successful ‘Sportivate Explores Rowing’ projects in Cornwall over the past two years, Cornwall Sports Partnership sponsored a ‘Sportivate Challenge’ at this years Looe Regatta.

This involved a separate race run by Looe Rowing Club, whose three successful Learn to Row courses have seen a notable boost in their young membership base.

The challenge involved a race with two buoy turns, for 14-25 year olds, aimed at those who were new to rowing. This included many participants who have discovered the sport through Sportivate projects run at their local club.

36 rowers from Devon and Cornwall competed at the August 3rd event, including a composite crew made up from several clubs. Boats competing were from Looe (2), Cotehele Quay, Brixham, Rame and Caradon. Caradon took the prize for top placed genuine 14-25 mixed (3 male, 3 female) crew, Looe won a trophy for the top all-female crew and the composite crew took the prize for the open category. 

Representatives from British Rowing and Cornwall Sports Partnership were on hand to promote the Sportivate programme and give out information on how clubs could get involved. All those competing got a Sportivate Explores Rowing t-shirt and it is hoped that the challenge can become an annual event. 

“Sportivate Explores Rowing has been a huge success in Cornwall,” said Rachel Knott, from Cornwall Sports Partnership, “so it’s great to see an event like this for participants to work towards.”

Rhiannon Halliday from British Rowing added: “It was brilliant to see so many young people on the water. Hopefully it has inspired more clubs to look at running Sportivate projects in the future.”

Thanks go to Looe Rowing Club for organising and running the challenge. For more on Explore Rowing including running your own ‘Learn to Row’ courses, visit www.explorerowing.org.

For more on Sportivate in Cornwall and Cornwall Sports Partnership visit www.cornwallsportspartnership/sportivate, and to see a gallery from the event please see the Cornwall Sports Partnership Facebook page.