‘It’s just going to get even better’ Adaptive rowing continues to grow at the British Rowing Club Championships

Hear from some of our winners about the development of adaptive racing across the UK

Now in its second year as a combined event, the British Rowing Club Championships saw an 8% overall increase on last year’s entry numbers with a record junior entry and a 31% year-on-year increase in entries for the senior events. This came with an increase in the number of competitors racing in the adaptive events, resulting in some thrilling finals on Monday morning.

“It’s honestly great, and the more people we can get, the better,” said British Champion Rohan Ladva.

“It’s a lot of fun to have a place to row, and the more competitors, the more people there are. It’s just going to get even better, I think,” added Rohan, who won the Open Junior AR-O Single Sculls event.

This win adds to Rohan’s win earlier this season at the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta and writes another chapter of a brilliant rivalry that is developing between the Hampton School BC sculler and Gabriel Phillips Rusenieks Avon County RC. Back in April, just 2.1 seconds separated the two athletes, and despite Rohan stretching out his advantage in the second half of Monday’s race, it was all to play for in the opening stages.

I thought Rohan dealt with the middle of the race very well and all plaudits to the other competitor,” said Hampton School’s Director of Rowing Colin Greenaway.

“I thought he went out really hard, and he threw everything at Rohan to try and unsettle him, but all credit to Rohan. He held his head and came through the middle. It was a nice, comfortable race in the end, but the first half was a bit stressful!”

Gabriel Phillips Rusenieks set the British Rowing Indoor Championships Record last December for the Sixth Form Boys PR3 2000m.

In the AR3 categories, there was success for Paralympic Pathway athletes Amalia Sangiovanni Vincetelli and James King in the Women’s and Open events, respectively. On his way to the gold medal, King beat last year’s champion, Colin Wallace, who continues his return to rowing following his MS diagnosis.

Having previously played rugby, James, now racing for Leeds RC, made his successful racing debut at the National Water Sports Centre.

“It was a really great row, and we’ve been working on this for about two months now, so to put it together is fantastic,” explained James.

“It’s amazing to see some of these guys here and to put in such an amazing performance in the race. It was a really competitive outing. It was fantastic to see this inclusion here today, and to see everyone perform the way they did is just fantastic.”

Speaking before James’ final British Rowing’s Paralympic Pathway Coach Will Stockton emphasised that there are plenty of other athletes with a similar sporting background to James waiting to be discovered.

“We’ve already identified a lot of people in universities and clubs around the country who are already involved in another sport but perhaps don’t realise that they would classify for the Paralympics.

“We’re always recruiting and we’re always looking to grow our programme. If people have a loss of strength or range across a joint – through the ankle, through the wrist or a  visual impairment – then we want to speak to them. Even if people aren’t sure about classifying, we can give them a pretty good idea early on as to what their prospects might be in the sport,” said Will.

While James made a golden debut on the water at the British Rowing Club Championships for Amalia Sangiovanni Vincetelli, her gold medal was another feather in the cap after a season to remember.

Back at JIRR, the Rob Roy BC sculler had a dominant win in the Women’s Adaptive Single Sculls. Fast forward a couple of months to Henley Women’s Regatta, and there was further success as she went home with the Grosvenor Cup for PR3 Single Sculls, beating last year’s winner Samantha Gough.

Henley Women’s Regatta also experienced remarkable growth across the adaptive event. This year’s field of eight scullers was more than double the entry from 12 months prior.

Speaking on the medal pontoon, Amalia was delighted with her performance. I’m very happy to be here,” she said.

“It’s been a fantastic season, but it’s not the end yet. I qualified for England last weekend, so I’ll be doing Home Internationals, which should be really fun and a nice way to finish the season. It’s been amazing, it’s been such a fun season.”