This is your weekly Rowing Briefing, covering the key developments of the last seven days on the rowing circuit, both in the UK and beyond. To receive an audio briefing with these stories and more at the start of each week, sign up to Updates. If you have a story to share, contact our news desk – juniorrowingnews@gmail.com.
Domestic Rowing:
‘Adapting our behaviour to help climate change isn’t always about giving something up’
Melissa Wilson, GB Rowing Team
With the nation holding a collective bated breath for the PM’s “Roadmap out of Lockdown”, many rowers find themselves wondering what today’s announcement will mean for them and our sport.
British Rowing has confirmed the final set of challenges in their ‘adventurer series’, designed to keep athletes motivated through lockdown by theming events on global landmarks.
The latest announcement pits athletes against one another in Asia and Australia in cities such as Tokyo and Sydney; the final event will be the “Head of the Mall” in London.
A World U23 medallist and A-finalist at the 2017 and 2018 World Rowing Championships, Melissa Wilson has spoken up this week about the growing need to act on the rapidly developing climate crisis.
Speaking to British Rowing, Wilson said, “Radical action needs to be taken, but it can only happen if it’s understood that… it’s a sensible and rational response to the science”.
The 27-year-old completed her undergraduate law degree at Cambridge University, where she competed under the light blue banner at four Boat Races. She’s currently a part-time researcher at the Good Law Project and Plan B Earth, the latter of which is currently embroiled in controversy after Director Tim Crosland breached an embargo enacted by the Supreme Court in the wake of its ruling that Heathrow’s proposed expansion was legal. You can read more on the case here.
British Rowing has also announced a new partnership with Clasado Biosciences, the team behind Bimuno, whose products claim to improve the health of gut flora. Team GB Rowers will be provided with the supplements, whilst British Rowing members can access the products at a 20% discount.
International Rowing:
“Thanks to the very strong support of our global indoor rowing community, we will have three days of live-streamed finals, enhanced by virtual technology,”
Jean-Christophe Rolland, World Rowing President
World Rowing’s Indoor Championships will occur virtually from 23-27 February, with rowers from 63 nations taking part. Commenting on the move to a virtual event, World Rowing President Jean-Christophe Rolland said, “When it became clear that a physical Indoor Championships was not going to be possible this year, we immediately focused all our efforts on creating a virtual remote global participation event that would retain all the high quality of presentation and competition of our previous World Championships,”
World Rowing has also highlighted the story of three former Italian rowers who have made the switch to sailing and are on course to win the Americas Cup. You can find the full story here.
This article supplements our Weekly Briefing that you can have delivered to your WhatsApp inbox at the start of each week. To find out more and sign up, head over to Updates.
If you’re hungry for more, check out any of our other pieces from The Catch, listen to our latest podcast episode, or flick through our race previews.
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Cover image by Roesie Percy
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