LOCOG Go Rowing at Royal Docks Rowing Club

On Thursday 30th September junior scullers at the Royal Docks Rowing Club in East London were given a chance to put their coaching skills to the test when 13 members of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) visited the club for a taster rowing session.

Lizzie Chapman  – a Royal Docks Rowing Club member reports…

After a brief introduction to the sport and some one-to-one coaching from members of RDRC on ergos and in the London Regatta Centre tank, it was out onto the water for our LOCOG rowers.

Despite having little or no sculling experience, everyone was soon flying along the dock in an octuple (with some of the juniors helping out to keep the boat balanced) and two stable lakeboats. But simply sculling up and down the dock wasn’t enough for our new scullers; “we’re competitive people” one said, “When is the race?” So to end the evening’s outing both lake-boat crews lined up at the 250m mark ready to race. Adrenaline was pumping as the two crews exchanged banter and argued over who would win. Both crews came forward and, after some confusion over when the race had started, both crews got off to a great start, with the green boat pulling out ahead. Then disaster struck as one member of the green crew fell off her seat and the whole crew stopped rowing. The red crew seized their opportunity and pulled past the greens who just couldn’t catch up.

After putting all the boats away, the members of LOCOG were all buzzing and had clearly enjoyed their sculling experience. Before they left, the members of Royal Docks were all encouraging LOCOG to visit again, while LOCOG reminded us to sign up for their gamesmaker volunteer programme, with both parties agreeing to do so.