British Rowing recently joined a Paralympic Discover Day in Liverpool supported by Runcorn Adaptive Lead Faye Stewart. Faye supported the previous event in Birmingham and kindly shared her account with us:
- “It was a very busy day at the stand. There was a steady stream of peoplterested in rowing, some with Paralympic aspirations demonstrating amazing fitness and power levels and many others showing a keen interest to know how they could start participating and competing locally and nationally in the sport. If they had all been from the northwest I would have had one heck of a recruitment bonanza … The reality was they were from all over the UK and of all different ages from 7 up ! I was honoured to meet some Special Olympic champions eager to conquer another sport. It really was great to see so many people fired up to row. There was some PR / Paralympic potentials amongst them, they were signposted towards BR registration, but on club / national level there could easily be some new regional rowers within AR1 PD, AR2 PD and AR3 LI & PD and some interested in mixed ability squads, all were interested to row and hopefully compete on the water once they have been directed to their regionally appropriate clubs. The event was inspirational and it was mind blowing to see just how far people will travel to show their interest to take part…From the north of Scotland to as far down as Cornwall folks had made the journey. Would love to see these folks picked up but their local clubs over the coming months and on the way to achieving their own personal goals in a new sport whether it is simply to learn, get fitter or strive to compete at indoor championships, or on the water at local, regional or national competition. I loved it and especially loved encouraging so many to give it a go and seek out their local clubs.”
