London Youth Rowing (LYR) proved that the saying ‘bigger and better’ is true this week when almost 1100 young people took part in the second ever National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships, (NJIRC) on the 5th March at the Battersea Evolution Site, Battersea Park, London. The event was the brainchild of LYR, who have worked with an unbeatable team that saw The Boat Race, and Concept 2 add their support to many volunteers and supporters to stage this exciting and well-attended event.
With The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race taking place at the end of the month, the aim of the event was to give young people aged between 11 – 18 from across the country the opportunity to compete over the same distance as the elite athletes taking place in the race in itself, and to broaden the appeal of the Boat Race to a wider audience that would not normally be involved with the race. This was certainly achieved, as well as the individual races and team events the NJIRC also played host to The Boat Race Crew Announcement too. Mid way through the day they were able to introduce the two University Presidents who in turn introduced their crews to the worlds press and TV crews that were there too to see who will be in the actual Boat Race for the first time.
They then stayed and met many of the competitors and could be seen cheering on some of them in their races later. It was a great thrill for them to be able to meet and ask The Boat Race Crews questions and possibly get indoor racing techniques as the C2 Indoor Rower plays a big part in the training of Boat Race Crews.

As well as many young people from London and the South East, over 200 young people traveled down from an Indoor Rowing initiative, based in Birmingham, from rowing clubs in South Wales, schools from Manchester,
Plymouth, Devon, a crew from Jersey in the Channel Islands also returned this year too. All were in the shadow of Fasila Hussein though who traveled from Chennai in Southern India to compete.

“We had a very short time to actually pull all the strands together – not just the racing area but we also wanted to provide lots of fun things for the competitors to do while they were there – a skateboard area, climbing wall, some street art provided by the amazing students from Carshalton College, London and you could also brush up on your tight rope walking skills too. It was a great day and we had tremendous support from Roehampton University Boat Club, Wandsworth Sports Department and our sponsors who provided staff too – a great team effort” said Matt Rostron, the event organiser and Programme Director of London Youth Rowing.

The quality of racing was extremely impressive- all year groups raced over different times and distances which made for a really exciting and full race schedule that entertained spectators throughout the day. There were medals for all category winners, as well of the generous prize of a new concept 2 rowing machine, donated by the company themselves. These were awarded to the Sprint Relay winning boys and girls teams. The title of Boat race Relay Champions 2008 went to Reading Blue Coat School for the Boys and the T & T Gals from Nottingham and Tees, winners for the girls.

In true Boat race tradition it was down to the flip of a coin to decide who got the top prize. Reading Blue Coat School called it and won the incredible prize of following the Oxford and Cambridge boat race on March 29th in inflatable boats driven by the Royal Marines. T & T Gals didn’t go away empty handed – they get to follow the earlier race between Isis and Goldie – truly prizes that money just can’t buy. Full results are available from the www.londonyouthrowing.com website.

The success of the event was down to the combined efforts of a number of organisations, and demonstrates the impact that an innovative and well-structured event can have on young people. In particular, the efforts of Concept 2, the Boat Race Company, Ashurst, XChanging under the leadership of London Youth Rowing combined to make the event as successful as it was.