BVS & Duiske College Rowing Blitz

BVS AND DUISKE COLLEGE ROWING BLITZ

On Monday 8th April Borris Vocational School hosted the Duiske College / Borris Rowing Blitz. Covid had prevented this event for a number of years. Borris Vocational School worked in conjunction with Graiguenamanagh Rowing Club and Rowing Ireland to initiate the Get Going Get Rowing Leadership programme for TY students. This had previously been a great success in the school and it was good to see it back up and running again this year. It consisted of seven TY students from Borris Vocational School and Duiske College going to Graiguenamanagh Rowing Club for a day to learn the technique of indoor rowing, different games and activities they could use and then planning a 5 week coaching module which they would teach to first year students in their respective schools. It was a very enjoyable and challenging day. The students learnt a lot and then got to work introducing first years to the sport of indoor rowing. After five weeks all first year students had learned how to row on an ergometer and were ready to participate in their first ever Rowing Blitz.

After a lovely Easter break all students were energised and ready to go! With eight rowing machines and over 120 students participating, it was a busy morning. Each student completed an individual event. This was a two minute row with the distance recorded. The longest distance for the boys was 533m completed by Gavin Kelly from Duiske College. Jack Richardson from Borris was only one metre behind. Charlie Griffith, James Dalton and Gary Kelly (Duiske College) were not far behind. For the girls, Doireann Roche (Duiske College) completed 458m while Libby Barron, Luisa Foley and Sarah Fenlon recorded excellent distances.

It was then onto the relay races. This proved the most enjoyable event of the day. Teams consisted of four students with everyone rowing 250m each then making a very quick change over to save some valuable seconds. Kian Minchin’s team were the clear winners with Orla Coleman’s team in second place and Callum Kelly’s team in third.

It was an action packed morning and would not have happened without the help of Andrew Hennessy and Grainne Harris from Graiguenamangh Rowing Club along with Amy Johnson from Rowing Ireland. A special thanks and well done to our TY students, Aidan Savage Kelly, Thomas Sheehan, Lily Heffernan, Sarah Joyce, Leah Jordan, Stephen O’ Brien, Alex Dreelin, Luke Hennessy, Jack Kidd and Brian Duffy for coaching the first years and also helping to organise and run the event. It was a great success and hopefully this event is part of our school calendar for many more years to come.