With fixtures yet to be played, we catch up on the recent rowing camp in the first Sports Report of the summer term. Ahead of the Easter Holiday, a large group of our pupils travelled to Spain for a week-long rowing camp - the first overseas Easter camp since before the pandemic.
The following writeup of the trip comes courtesy of Director of Rowing, Mr Currie:
Woken by an early alarm on the last Thursday of term, the Boat Club, consisting of 49 pupils, were on a coach at 4.00am headed for Heathrow airport. The destination – Porto – followed by a two-hour bus ride to Ourense in Northern Spain. This was the venue for this year’s overseas Easter rowing camp. The venue boasted exceptional training facilities and a picturesque 12km stretch of dammed river to row on. The accommodation offered spa facilities and a very well received all-you-can-eat buffet serving four meals a day!
The goal of the week-long camp was to prepare the rowers for the regatta season ahead. A typical day consisted of two to three rowing sessions and then three to four hours of study time in preparation for the forthcoming public exams.
It was fantastic to have all the squads training together and a great team spirit was cultivated. The J15s and J16s gained a lot from seeing the senior squads operate, which is one of the key benefits from taking the group away for a training camp. The seniors were on hand to offer advice and set an example for Shiplake's future rowers.
The camp concluded with two 2km races to put into practice all the hard work from the week's training. A special mention must go to the J15 VIII for making the biggest improvements of the week. Another highlight was a knuckle duster of a race by the senior boys in pairs, with N Floyd and L Byca emerging as the winners by the smallest of margins in front of 2nd and 3rd place.
At the end of the week, we were left with 49 very tired rowers who were rewarded with a relaxing few hours in the hotel spa pool to help their recovery! The camp was an enormous success, and we look forward to returning next year. Now we look forward to the regatta season ahead and putting all the hard work into practice over the next few months.
A huge thank you must go to the coaches that gave up their holiday to coach the rowers during the week. The camp would not be possible without their support and dedication.
