Tyne United

Juniors from Gateshead and from Tyne United Rowing Club maintained their success on the schools indoor rowing competition scene with some gold medal beating scores and personal bests at the Regional Schools Indoor Rowing Competition.

The “Get Going, Get Rowing” indoor rowing competition, organised by our friends at the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, the Competition Managers and Concept2 took place at Maiden Castle at Durham University on Tuesday 2nd March.

The indoor rowing competitions for pupils from Gateshead had progressed from the virtual rowing league within Gateshead, to the Gateshead Schools IRC and then to the Tyne and Wear IRC finals and to the regional final. The kids from Gateshead who had won at the Gateshead IRC and the Tyne and Wear finals were now representing not only their school and city, but their region at this event.

Tyne United was well represented across all regions with juniors racing on behalf of Tyne and Wear, Durham and Northumberland. The standard of competition was exceptionally high with many regions being represented with rowing club/school junior athletes. For many representing Tyne and Wear, this was a daunting prospect.

Not to be outdone though, the Tyne and Wear team and the Gateshead/Tyne United juniors in particular held their own against their regional opposition.

It was a Gold and Silver for Gateshead/Tyne United with an epic competition between Chris Fleming (Hookergate School) and Christian Harrison (PHS/Tyne United) in the Year 10 event. Both athletes smashed through the 100% gold medal standard and left third place a good 50 metres behind… Chris led off the start but was closely hunted down by Christian all the way through the race – towards the last minute of the race it was neck and neck but Chris made a final push in the last 30 seconds and was the winner by a mere 8 metres.

Similarly in the Year 11 events, the Tyne United juniors competing (Leon Lofthouse, Josh Pringle, Luke Dixon) found themselves against GB junior trialists. In the end the winner was Marcus McQillan (ex-Tyne United) who, along with second, third and fourth place rowed through the 100% gold medal standard with ease. Leon, Josh and Luke acquitted themselves very well against these athletes and all recorded Personal Bests for their event.

It was gold for Gateshead in the girls Year 8 event with Amy McCarthy from Kingsmeadow again showing her strength which had led her to dominate the previous indoor events with a stunning win, beating second place by 14 metres and going over the 100% gold medal standard.

Overall it was a very successful day for Gateshead/Tyne United – proving that the standard of indoor rowing in the borough is rising and that the calibre of potential at the club is high.

From here there is one last event for the Gateshead Schools Squad – London and the National Junior Indoor Rowing Competition on the 16th March. Here the school children and junior athletes from Gateshead will enter the biggest junior indoor rowing competition in the world and compete against schools and club junior rowers from across Britain.

Tyne United Rowing Club is proud to be supporting the Gateshead Schools Squad and we wish them all the best for their competition in London.