National Indoor Rowing Championships 2016:

Following another excellent set of curriculum rowing lessons finishing with a very successful interhouse rowing competition we decided to enter a national competition for the first time. The event took place on 11^th March 2016 at the Lea Valley athletics centre on the outskirts of London. Over 2000 pupils took part, travelling from all over the country.

In the build up our year 8 pupils trained extremely hard using free time at lunch and after school to build their stamina and prepare for the gruelling 3min individual row and the 2000m team relays. This good preparation paid off with all individuals performing extremely well in their races, as can be seen from the results below:

Boys 3min row – 235 Competitors

Winner 861m

Kieran Lewis 13^th – 810m

Rhys Waring 21^st – 792m

Brandon Strawbridge 42^nd – 770m

Tom Bullock 52^nd – 760m

Boys 2000m Relay – 66 entries

Winner 6.29

Birchensale 15^th – 7.16

Girls 3min row – 281 Competitors

Winner 839m

Omega Miles 41^st - 727m

Dagmara Tuchowska 42^nd - 726m

Divna Dulic 70^th – 701m

Hannah Turbull 93^rd – 683m

Girls 2000m Relay – 86 entries

Winner 7.03

Birchensale 25^th – 8.05

A fantastic day was had by staff and pupils and there is no doubt that this will be an event we look to enter in future years. Taking part in competition at this level definitely helped the pupils involved to beat all other teams in the Redditch District Competition and be crowned district champions!