Festival of Indoor Rowing 2022
Due to the cancellation of the British Rowing Indoor Championships, British Rowing organised a “Festival of Indoor Rowing” in its place, where a series of events and an online league took place between the 5th – 10th December. This allowed indoor rowers to compete to beat personal best performances in a range of events. As boys had been training for the cancelled event, entries were made to compete in the Festival in the 1 minute sprint, 500m and timed races for their respective age groups.
Of the fourteen boys who participated, some took part in a single event, others doubled up and four boys raced in three different races, competing for gold, silver and bronze medals. Results were impressive with twelve 1st, six 2nd and three 3rd places, with others just finishing off the podium.
The highlight of the week was Michael Graham competing in the 500m. Earlier in the season he had broken the British Record in the 12 and under age category, but this time he went one better and set a new World Record with a time of 1:29.5s. This improved the WR by 0.6s, previously set in 2017 by an indoor rower from the USA. This formed part of a triple success for Michael.
Other notable performances came from Ben Evans securing three gold medals, while George Tonga’uiha and Max Roper both achieved two golds.
Overall, the boys should be proud of their achievements and have earned a well deserved break until after the holidays. Next term, the focus is on the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships with a block of eight weeks training leading up to the championships.
It is not too late for boys to push for a place in the team but places are limited and regular attendance to training is essential.
Individual events range from Year 7 to Sixth Form and Junior (Yr7-9) and Senior (Yr10-13) team relays.
Results:
Age Group |
Event |
Name |
Position/Performance |
Sixth Form |
2000m 500m 1 minute |
Ben Evans |
1st 6:51.2s 1st 1:21.7s 1st= 383m |
1 minute |
Sonny Tonga’uiha |
2nd 356m |
|
Year 11 |
500m 1 minute |
Will Hunter |
3rd 1:33.1s 2nd 333m |
Year 10 |
500m 1 minute |
George Tonga’uiha |
1st 1:27.7s 1st 362m |
500m 1 minute |
Mario Vasconcellos-Blanch |
4th 1:37.3s 2nd 328m |
|
|
1 minute |
Reece Gratsa-Smith |
4th 299m |
Year 9 |
500m 1 minute |
Harry Benson |
1st 1:45.2s 2nd 312m |
1 minute |
Oliver Vasconcellos-Blanch |
3rd 310m |
|
Year 8 |
3 minutes 1 minute 500m |
Michael Graham |
1st 888m 1st 345m 1st 1:29.5s |
|
1 minute |
Fin Underwood |
4th 285m |
Year 7 |
2 minutes 1 minute |
Max Roper |
1st 531m 1st 284m |
2 minutes 500m 1 minute |
Fraser McKenzie |
12th 481m 1st 2:06.0s 2nd 247m |
|
2 minutes 500m 1 minute |
Will Brightman |
47th 451m 2nd 2:10.2s 3rd 242m |
|
1 minute |
Aaryan Sidhu |
4th 232m |
Mr White