This will be the last View From The Launch of 2018. Where has that year gone?
It’s been a big year for WYR. We have done lots of things, hopefully all for the benefit of the youngsters. We have become an official charity with 4 Trustees. You will be aware of myself and of course Ben but we also have Jenny Argent and Annie White beavering away behind the scenes as active Trustees. We have an accountant, Richard Kong and a gang of Ambassadors. Paul and our crew of coaches work hard to keep the rowers motivated and on their toes. I am sure you will join me in thanking them all for their hard work and wishing the team a Happy Christmas and a Great New Year.
Some of the highlights of 2018 have include our indoor competition at Priestley. The excellent regatta at the end of the last school year, which showcased our young rowers talents. WYR being featured at Henley Royal Regatta, with a display of photographs that highlighted the work we are doing. The school leads getting to grips with coaching and many of them gaining qualifications in rowing and launch driving. Being mentioned in The Times. Showing some of you Henley Royal Regatta, a hard task but we managed it! With out doubt the stars/highlights of the show are of course the athletes.
On a personal note it has been very rewarding to see the effect the project has had on the youngsters. I am not going to claim we had 100% success but I do believe that we have enhanced the lives of many of our pupils. Lets hope we can continue to develop and help more youngsters in 2019.
Over the last 3 weeks we have started to work in the gym as temperatures have dropped below 5c. Some schools have been very unlucky and have been land based more than others. Yet the lucky one’s such as Bridgewater have managed to get on the water every week. We are starting to get an idea of the capabilities of our young rowers in the gym. They are all working hard and one or two are starting to emerge as medal candidates at NJIRC (National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships). The relay races at our own event in January are going to be very interesting and will be very close. It will probably come down to the rower changeovers; they need to be Formula One standard!
Ben and I are starting to get logistics sorted for our event on Wednesday 30th January. He has mailed out some information and will be sending more out by the end of the weekend. Part of this is an estimation of numbers that you think will be able to participate in January. This is vital information for us and can I ask for reply’s by the end of Wednesday next week. We do want to keep the event primarily for Pupil Premium but we are happy to accept entries from other sectors to make up the teams. There will be other schools taking part but the Warrington Youth Rowing team for NJIRC will only be selected from pupils that regularly take part in our project.
That’s it for now, may I finish by wishing you all a good break, a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Cheers Richard
School of Week 10 Culcheth, great session, Week 11 STB solid gym work,
Week12 Beamont strong numbers