At Bishop Young CofE Academy our aim is provide as many opportunities to our students as we can. One of the ways we have been doing this in sport is through rowing, in particular our indoor rowing club - which has been running for over 5 years now. Originally in partnership with Row Leeds and now London Youth Row (LYR) and Active Leeds we have had a consistent presence in the indoor championships but have never had the chance for our pupils to try open water rowing. This opportunity came earlier this month with four of our pupils being invited to participate in the session, which was to be filmed by the BBC.
The four girls chosen got in to rowing through our club as well as participating in the National Junior Indoor Rowing competition in 2022 and have been inspired by rowing with some aspiring to row in the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race one day. This was a great opportunity for them to be coached and have a chance to row on the open water. The girls had the opportunity to attend the club at the boat house at Roundhay lake with opportunities to see and speak with some experienced rowers and coaches. Their session started with some warm up exercises on the indoor rowing machines on land before going through all the procedures to be able to go out on the open water.
As a this has not been a mainstream sport at BYA it was fantastic to see the girls faces through the enjoyment and enthusiasm it gave them. We are due to participate in more open water sessions in the future and I hope this will push the extra-curricular club from strength to strength.
As a result of this session, the recording went out live during this year’s boat race live on National television where you can see the enjoyment that came from the session as well as the aim of the London Youth Rowing (LYR) and Active Leeds are trying to have on the participation levels of pupils in West Yorkshire. Sport has no barriers and hopefully we will see more people attending our clubs in the near future to be involved in these exciting opportunities.
Rachael Cole, Head of School commented, "At Bishop Young Academy we strive to give our students the best experiences we can, both inside and outside of the classroom. To be part of such a great initiative is a fantastic opportunity for all involved."
If you want to see more from BYA and what we offer, please see our Twitter and Instagram profiles on the following handle – BYASportandPE
Special thanks to the four girls, Fatima, Simone, Selome and Yasmin for taking part as well as Rebecca from LYR for providing the opportunity.
