To all para-rowers, we hope you’ve taken a well-deserved break following the end of the rowing season in April.
J B Sharp Series
In NSW, we are about to commence our winter series of regattas, known as the JB Sharp Memorial Regatta Series. The Series announced last year that they were trialling the inclusion of Para Rowing at that series – this year they’ve tweaked the rules and it is back for another year. The regatta series runs for 10 weeks each alternate week from this Sunday, 9am – 12am.
The races are open to rowers of all classifications, and will be run this year as an ‘inclusive doubles’ event – you can partner with any other rower (para or able-bodied) of any gender or classification, and each crew will be given a starting time based on crew composition (ie female AS rowers will go off “GO”, while a Male inclusive LTA boat would be off 95 seconds over 1,000m.
If you are interested in racing contact the convener to express your interest. There are no entry fees, and you just need to send in a registration form by the Thursday prior to the regatta. For more info and the registration forms please see the JB Sharp webpage here: http://www.nswrowers.com/jbsharp/2017-jbsharp.html
Head of the Yarra 2017
After last year’s fantastic success, the Head of the Yarra is back this year, and looks to be bigger than ever, as Rowing Australia have decided to select and run a crew in the event. The BRC Para-Program has committed to also arranging crews for this event, with the same intention as last year that wherever possible, every rower who wishes to compete should be given the opportunity to do so.
So if you are interested in racing, please contact us to let us know – if you have put your name down for the RA crew, you may still put your name down with us too as you will not know if you have been selected for some time yet. Just please let us know if you have done so, so that we can try to arrange the crews accordingly.
Para Rowing Mailing List
We’ve recently created a mailing list to help spread the word of other para-rowing opportunities in Australia. If you’re keen to receive emails like this in the future, please enter your information here. The intent is not to flood your inboxes, but to periodically send out news, information, and opportunities for crews via this list, rather than trying to do so manually.
See you on the water!
Liam James
Balmain Para-Rowing Program