During this term, our rowers have been working exceptionally hard, despite there being very few competitive events to take part in. To add a bit of competition, coaches at Shiplake developed a series of virtual rowing races and invited other local rowing schools to get involved. It has also been great news for Shiplake at the one national event that could take place, albeit virtually - the British Indoor Rowing Championships.
Director of Rowing, Mr David Currie, tells us more: "With the lack of racing over the last few months we had to seek alternative methods to remind the students why they are training and add a bit of competition to their training programme. With this the idea of virtual racing was born, the brainchild of Mr Mackworth-Praed. The protocol is simple: any schools wishing to be involved must race their crews on their home water over 1km upstream and downstream twice totalling 4km of racing. This had to be recorded on Strava, the sports tracking app.
"By racing upstream and downstream this helps negate any variance of stream the different locations may have. Although there are still variances to consider for each different location, the competition created a real buzz and did recreate the feeling of going racing because crews' times would be seen by other schools.
"Schools that joined in the virtual racing were, St Edwards, Radley, Eton, Shrewsbury and Abingdon. Shiplake posted some good times with our Matched Senior 8s and Girls' Quads, this is promising for when we go into 1st and 2nd 8 and girls crews. It is unfair to compare schools directly as each school was racing under different parameters, many of the schools can only row in year 12 or 13 bubbles making it hard for them to create matched crews. Anyhow the virtual racing provided some much needed motivation and camaraderie that only racing can really achieve.
"One national competition that could take place this term was the British Indoor Rowing Championships. This year saw the event that is usually held in Lee Valley Olympic Park, held virtually. All competitors connected their Concept 2 rowing machine to a computer and competed online.
"This enabled competitors from all over the world to enter some as far as Australia. Shiplake Entered Nicole Dunn and Freddie Middleton. Due to Nicole being born before January she had to enter the Under 23 event and finished in an outstanding 2nd place for 2km, in a time of 7:08.3 which is a new personal best time for her. Freddie Middleton raced in the year 11 boys category which was a 6 minute race, Freddie finished in 6th place out of 38 competitors, the winner coming from Australia. Freddie was the 3rd place British rower."
Huge congratulations to both Nicole and Freddie!
Flickr album: Virtual Rowing Racing 2020 |
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