The Tyne Single Scullers Head heralded the long awaiting return to racing for British Rowers. The event doubled up as the test event for British Rowing’s return to race plans and The Tyne God lived up to all the pressure and expectations.
One thing the world hasn’t been short of over the past six months is time. We’ve had time to reflect, time to evaluate the world we live in and time to make a difference. For the northern rowing community, the light at the end of the tunnel has been the hope of racing and seeing single scullers return to the Tyne.
As with all aspects of life, event planning has been uprooted and the rule book rewritten. Countless hours were spent on Zoom, taking a meticulous look through various updates from British Rowing and The Department of Culture Media and Sport. Due the the close knit community of Northern Rowing, the three host sites; Newcastle University, Tyne ARC and Tyne United RC were able to plan alongside each other to ensure the return to racing would be a safe and secure one. Kat Bulmer, Chair of the Organising Committee emphasised that events this year cannot run with the usual amounts of planning:
“It took a lot of hard work over several months to get to the position where we felt happy and safe proceeding with the competition. Thankfully I had an incredibly proactive and motivated organising committee who were always looking to find solutions to problems rather than reasons why we couldn’t do something”
Kat Bulmer
One of the fundamental takeaways from the event was the importance of transparency and flexibility on a number of levels. The first is with local authorities. The event was able to go ahead because councils on both side of the Tyne were kept in the loop. Rowers are famous for staying within our sport’s ‘bubble’ and only branching out when absolutely necessary. Clubs should use this as a positive opportunity to forge new relationships with communities around them which will not only a safe return to racing but also bridges being built for the future. Secondly, transparency of competitor instructions is vital. More restrictions means more paperwork. However, in order for the message to get across, the organising committee put together a video, outlining the key points from the competitor instructions. This is a far more engaging tool and allowed for a wider reach of people across social media. A three minute video will always be more palatable than large PDF!
When race day came around it was like welcoming home an old friend. There was the marshals, the umpires and the last minute toilet trips before boating. From the perspective of the organising committee, the day ran smoothly because of the volunteers. One significant advantage that the TSSH has is that it is run by a university club. As such, many of the students live together. This meant it was very easy to allocate jobs based on who lives with who and subsequently reducing social contact.
“When race day came it was a huge relief to see everything work as well as it did and the volunteers were essential in making that happen and in making the competitors feel safe. Having boats on the river racing again after so long was brilliant to see and made all the hard work worthwhile!”
Kat Bulmer
Despite the new restrictions the TSSH produced some fantastic racing with competitors coming from across the region and beyond. The event showed that racing can be carried out safely and still have the buzz of competition we have all missed, albeit without spectators.
With the usual racing calendar tugging on the leash, ready to roar into life, all eyes will be be on the government to ensure that British Rowing’s return to racing can continue to go ahead as smoothly and safely as possible.
Fergus
That’s all for now. If you’re hungry for more, check out any of our other pieces from The Catch, listen to the latest podcast episode, or flick through our race previews.
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