Molesey breaks ground on new rowing centre
Molesey Boat Club was delighted to welcome the Mayor and Mayoress of Elmbridge Borough Council, the CEO of British Rowing, together with the clubs Olympic medalists and GB Rowing Team squad members to the ground breaking ceremony for the new indoor rowing centre on Sunday 15th June.
The rowing centre will be a major addition to the River Thames’s rowing facilities, including a new gym and a community indoor rowing tank.
The community rowing tank will replace a previous incarnation which was demolished in 2004 when the new Walton Xcel Centre was built. Seating either eight scullers or sweep oarsmen, it will be available for the whole community to use, enabling the club to provide a safe, stable and dry environment for both rowers and para-rowers, as well as giving schools and clubs the opportunity to try out rowing and gain confidence before going onto the river.
Bill Raspin, Committee Chairman of Molesey Boat Club, said: “It has been a tremendous team effort to get the project started but we are finally underway. This will be a great facility for the local community when completed. We still need to raise funds to complete the project so please visit the MBC website to buy a brick!”
Moe Sbihi, Olympic bronze medalist, European champion and Molesey BC member, said: “I am delighted we have finally started the project. I started here as a junior and its great to see the club building new facilities to encourage more people to take up rowing.”
MBC Head coach, Phil Burguignon, added: “We lost four months of water training last year due to dangerous river conditions, so the tank will make a real difference to our ability to teach the youngsters basic technique during the winter months.”
For more information or to ‘buy a brick’, please visit www.moleseyboatclub.org.
