Rowing

British Rowing Indoor Championships 2023
The Langley Academy has four medallists, including two British Champions, after a successful weekend at BRIC. Two World and three British Records were broken at the British Rowing Indoor Championships on 9 December, alongside 30 championship records during an action-packed day of racing.

16 of the 21 students who met Mr Weare’s standards to earn an invite to represent the Academy at the British Rowing Indoor Championships (BRIC) travelled to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, to take part in FitFest, a cross-training, weightlifting and indoor rowing bonanza.

11 of our students produced a personal best performance in one of their individual events, with Jasmel and Tomasz producing personal bests in both their individual events.

First up were the year 9 boys, racing over 4 minutes. Tomasz finished 8th out of the 59 boys from around the country. Oliver was 27th. Selection was based on making the top 30.

Later in the afternoon were the sprint races over 500 metres. All 16 students took part in these events. The qualification standards set by Mr Weare for these events were a top 10 finish for Years 7 and 8, a top 20 finish for Years 9 and above.
For the Year 7s, the qualification standard for the 2 minute race was to make the top 20. Even though we had 6 boys entered, all of them made the top 20, as did all 4 girls. Personal bests came from Mehrzad (5th), just 10 metres away from a medal, Aaryan (12th) and Piotr (14th) for the boys, and from Jasmel, who was also 5th in the girls’ event and only 8 metres away from a medal, Diva (9th) and Saanvi (17th).

Klaudia nearly broke the 2 minute mark and was both surprised and delighted to take the bronze medal in the Year 8 girls 500m event with a new personal best. Anaya finished 7th.

Tomasz was only 3.5 seconds off a podium place in 6th place, whilst Oliver was 12th in the Year 9 boys 500m race, where the winner set a new British Champs record.

The Year 7s learnt a lot from their earlier 2 minute races. Even though we had 7 boys taking part, 6 of them finished in the top 10. Aaryan (9th) led through the first 200 metres but dropped away, Akaalraj was lying 3rd throughout, but was overtaken on the last stroke, missing the bronze by 0.5 seconds (4th) in a personal best. Mehrzad took over the lead just before halfway and won the event, becoming British Champion, our 7th in the last 12 years. The other boys were Izak (5th) (personal best), Remmi (6th), Piotr (7th), Joshan (11th).

The girls were up against Sophie from Maidstone, the silver medallist from the 2 minute event, so the expectation was for two medals. The girls were briefed to take a chance on pressuring Sophie, as they had everything to gain and nothing to lose. The girls really took this on board. Grace took a lead to 100m by 0.1 seconds, then pulled away to a 1.1 seconds lead to 200m. Jasmel and Sophie from Maidstone then pushed hard over the next 100m, Jasmel drawing level with Grace at 300m, Sophie just 0.3 seconds behind both TLA students. Over the next 100m Jasmel gained another second on Sophie, whilst Grace lost 1.1 seconds on the silver position. In the last 100m, Sophie from Maidstone pulled back on Jasmel, who held on to win by just 0.4 seconds, massively improving her best time for the event by 4.8 seconds, with Grace taking the bronze. Meanwhile, Diva was 4th and Saanvi was 5th.

After all this excitement, all 16 students took part in the junior relays over 8 minutes. Junior means Year 13 and below, so all our teams were doing it for experience, as all the teams were racing 6th Formers. The boys’ teams finished 18th and 22nd, the girls’ team were 23rd, whilst the mixed team of Zayaan (Y12), Tomasz(Y9), Klaudia (Y8) and Grace (Y7) finished 11th.
Zayaan Adil produced a lifetime best to finish 16th in the 6th Form boys 500m event.

Students will now be preparing for outdoor rowing events in March, May, June and July 2024.

Year 7 House Rowing Competition
On Wednesday 13 December, 41 Year 7 students stayed behind after lessons and rowed for their Houses. The competition was an 8-minute relay, for teams of up to 4, for boys, girls and mixed teams, with points earned by each team towards the House competition. 8 boys’ teams took part, 4 girls’ team and 6 mixed teams. This is the same format as the junior relays at the British Rowing Indoor Championships which took place the Saturday beforehand.

A number of students competed twice in order to get more points for their House, many with incomplete teams. Next term we will be running similar events for another year group.