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🇬🇧 Domestic Rowing:
“Whilst competition isn’t the be all and end all of our sport, it often sets the rhythm of a rowing club’s calendar and so we are very conscious of ensuring there is a coherent plan for a return of events whilst COVID-19 restrictions continue.”
British Rowing Press Release
Today marks the return of rowing for the masses, with the easing of national restrictions permitting outdoor group activities – including rowing. To brush-up on precisely what you can and can’t do over the coming weeks, see British Rowing’s Managing Covid-19 Guidance.
With less than a week to go until the 2021 Boat Races, we took a deep-dive on the pedigree of every Blue, alongside analysis of the impact of the new course on each crew’s chances of success. To find out more, check out our preview of the 75th Women’s Boat Race and the 166th Men’s Boat Race.
British Rowing has announced that this year’s J16 development camp will be held on-line, allowing more athletes than ever to experience a Team GB training camp. In previous years, select juniors have been invited to attend camps with their coaches to develop their training regimes and screen for future talent. As ever, Covid-19 has made this impossible for the 2021 event, with clubs instead invited on-line to series of talks and seminars from key figures at Caversham.
The governing body has also laid out its plans for assisting competitions as restrictions permit. British Rowing has vowed to make it easier for ‘pop-up’ affiliated events to launch, alongside introducing a streamlined calendar and ensuring the process for changing the dates of affiliated competitions is more accessible than in previous seasons.
🌏 International Rowing:
“This event is cancelled on the currently scheduled dates.”
World Rowing Press Release
The WWF has partnered with a rowing centre in Shanghai to safeguard Clean Water and promote education around unspoiled aquatic habitats’ value. Speaking to World Rowing for World Water Day, former Asian Rowing Federation Secretary-General Ken Lee suggested that they “aim to instil an appreciation and consciousness of environmental protection from an early age. This will hopefully be passed on to the students’ parents, community and beyond – affecting government environmental policies.”
World Rowing has also confirmed that the 2021 European Rowing Junior Championships have been cancelled. The event, originally due to run 22-23 May 2021, has been called off after the organising committee is reported to have faced difficulties in progressing their planning to deliver a safe and successful event given the cost, complexity, uncertainty and risk from the latest measures of the national and state governments to combat the high and currently increasing number of COVID-19 cases, the increased costs of accommodation for Member Federations due to these measures and inability of medical and rescue personnel and many volunteers connected to their work fighting the pandemic. The OC is currently investigating alternate dates to host the event in September or October 2021 with their stakeholders.
Cover image: Fergus Mainland
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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