The Youth Boat Race

Inspired by The Gemini Boat Race, the Youth Boat Race represents a joint endeavour between Fulham Reach Boat Club and the Boat Race Fund.

PHOTOGRAPHY BENEDICT TUFNELL

On 26th March 2024, young rowers from seven local schools in the West London area will compete in an event to be known as “The Youth Boat Race”. The event will see mixed crews of boys and girls representing Kensington Aldridge Academy and Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School competing in race one, and mixed school and gender crews from Sacred Heart High School, Holland Park School, Hammersmith Academy, Fulham Boys’ School and West London Free School competing in race two. These two match races will take place over the first part of the iconic Boat Race course on a low water flood tide and be umpired by Boat Race umpires Sir Matthew Pinsent and Judith Packer.

Racing will conclude with participation prizes given at Thames Rowing Club, with the medals being presented by The Mayor of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, Councillor Patricia Quigley.

The Youth Boat Race aims to provide a unique and powerful opportunity for locally based youth rowers to become a part of the historic and high-profile sporting event that is the Boat Race.

Drawing on the traditions of resilience, excellence and teamwork that epitomise the Boat Race, the ambition is that The Youth Boat Race will inspire the young people competing for their schools, and connect the Boat Race to the community in which it has lived for almost 200 years in a shared experience of race preparation and competition.

The highly professional team at Fulham Reach Boat Club will have principal responsibility for organising The Youth Boat Race with key logistical and media support being provided by The Boat Race Company. Fulham Reach Boat Club is an award-winning sports development charity located on the Boat Race course.

“Young rowers from the West London area will compete in an event to be known as The Youth Boat Race”

Funding for The Youth Boat Race 2024 is being provided by the trustees of the Oxford and Cambridge Rowing Foundation from The Boat Race Fund to facilitate the education and development of youth rowers through the provision of rowing facilities.

The Boat Race Fund was established to deliver a common goal to break down barriers to participation via six dedicated and different community projects that have led the way in opening access to rowing on and off the water.

The Youth Boat Race will be a pilot event in 2024 but it is hoped that, if successful, it will grow to an annual event taking place during Boat Race week. In this way it can continue to make a lasting difference to the lives of young people and their communities.

Here is an update on the other five projects supported by The Boat Race Fund – the words are those of each of the projects.

Brixton Wings

It’s not easy getting to the river with fifteen kids in tow from Brixton, so we mainly go over mid-terms to the regatta centre in East London, spending a few hours each day on the water or in the ‘practice tank’, and coached by the wonderful London Youth Rowing team. The young people love the opportunity to try out new skills and they particularly like the regatta centre as it’s away from their usual environment and available activities. The older ones who came through our programmes now work very well as paid volunteers, running coaching sessions within our unique ‘pavement rowing’ initiatives, which became our alternative to indoor rowing during periods of lockdown, and is now the preferred delivery venue for all our ergo sessions.

Many of our rowers have gone on to university and joined rowing clubs, including Oxford Brookes, Southampton, Manchester and Reading and are always keen to return to the ‘pavement sessions’ to see and inspire their younger club members, whenever they’re on a break from university.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank Gemini and the Boat Race for their generous support and commitment to our small community organisation.

Firhill Youth Project and Community Sports Hub

The Firhill Youth Project and Community Sports Hub is a rowing and water sports activity hub that aims to positively impact lives in the North Glasgow community. We are based in one of the most deprived areas of Scotland, where there is limited provision for any sports or physical activity for young people. We operate out of a series of containers at the Firhill Basin, beside the Partick Thistle Football Stadium, where we provide local young people aged 11-25 with free, accessible, and sustainable opportunities to become active and stay active in their local community through rowing. Since our inception in June 2019, we have helped hundreds of local young people to enjoy, access, and utilise their local waterways. Utilising rowing as a catalyst, our approach is geared towards the provision of positive sport experiences.

The hub has fostered excellent working partnerships with more than twenty local organisations, including local schools and youth groups, who are provided with free and progressive opportunities for their young people to row throughout the full year.

Our funding from the Boat Race and Gemini is vital in helping us work towards a more sustainable future in which more local young people are afforded with free opportunities to row. We are already aware of the valuable impact we have had in our local community, and we will continue to inspire through the provision of positive sport experiences.

Ely College

Thanks to the ongoing support of our partners from The Boat Race Fund, the longstanding relationship between Ely College and Isle of Ely Rowing Club has been able to offer more than 400 students the opportunity to experience rowing on a regular basis over the last five years. This year’s 40 weekly rowers continue to be inspired by the exceptional athletes and coaches that they share the river with two mornings a week as they launch opposite CUBC. Without the support of The Boat Race Fund access to this provision simply wouldn’t be achievable due to the financial demands in providing access to suitable coaching and equipment. Recognition of the ongoing commitment from the Isle of Ely Club in support of projects funded by The Boat Race Fund should also be recognised, as they have clocked up well over 1500 hours of voluntary time in working with us as a college. One of the most rewarding elements of our partnership with The Boat Race Fund is the positive relationship with CUBC who this year have kindly donated a boat (an eight) and provided coaching development opportunities for one of the Club’s coaches, who has enjoyed the opportunity to witness first-hand the commitment, dedication and knowledge required to be successful in harnessing an elite rowing crew.

The junior section at the Isle of Ely continues to flourish with an ever-increasing number of eager students excited about transitioning from school to club rowing. Without doubt the highlight of our collaborative working was last summer’s CUBC-hosted experience day where thanks to support from The Boat Race Fund, more than 60 students from six local schools took part in a day of land-based erg competition, water-based skills, and racing activities alongside a tour of CUBC where they met five university athletes. The experience was certainly one that will live long in the memory and wouldn’t have been possible without The Boat Race Fund, Love Rowing, East Anglia Youth Rowing and the Isle of Ely Rowing Club.

London Youth Rowing (LYR), Leeds

LYR started to operate in Leeds and the surrounding areas of Bradford and Wakefield during the pandemic and are now, thanks to funding provided by The Boat Race Fund and the Henley Royal Regatta Charitable Trust, operating in 27 state secondary schools. Many young people in Bradford and Wakefield would never have considered taking up rowing, but we are delighted to have changed that. A highlight of this year was 900 young people taking part in the Northern edition of a world-leading indoor rowing event. The National Junior International Rowing Champions (NJIRC) staged its Northern edition in Leeds for only the second time at the John Charles Tennis Centre in Leeds. LYR ran NJIRC 2024 on a few different days in two venues to open the sport to more young people and to help them promote their wish to make on-water and indoor rowing more accessible to more young people.

As in previous years we ran the Active Row programme in Yorkshire, working with schools that have higher levels of underrepresented groups within their community. This is not limited to race or socioeconomic groups but extends to young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Matt Rostron, LYR CEO, said: “Once again, NJIRC has delivered not only a truly brilliant sporting event, but supported our objectives of increasing the opportunities and possibilities for so many young people across the country. We could not do this without the support of our amazing funders and supporters and the great success of the Leeds event just shows the huge appetite for us to do this work and for the Active Row programme”.

Warrington Youth Rowing

The Boat Race Fund has helped Warrington Youth Rowing to expand the reach of its rowing programme. A highlight this year was hosting the 2024 indoor championships. The scene was set at Birchwood Community High School, where over 400 young athletes from 34 schools, accompanied by 50 dedicated volunteers, converged for a day of fierce competition. The indoor rowing event offered the students who take part in the Warrington Youth Rowing programme to compete for their school in individual and relay races. For many of the competitors, it will have been the first time they had the opportunity to represent their school. Each athlete had the chance to compete in an individual race and a relay race. The Year 8 individual race was three minutes long and the Year 9 race was four minutes long. The relay race was eight minutes long and for teams of up to four athletes. Gold, silver and bronze medals were presented to the overall winners of each event on the day, and we have also presented medals to the regional winners. The fastest twelve Year 8 girls and fastest twelve Year 8 boys also qualified to compete at the National Junior Indoor Rowing Competition delivered by London Youth Rowing in London on March 1st. Warrington Youth Rowing is already planning their next competition, the schools regatta, which will take place on Wednesday 26th June over 300m on the River Mersey at Warrington Rowing Club.