WORLD CLASS STARTThe address of the ARA World Class Start pages are as follows: http://www.oara-rowing.org What is the aim of the World Class Start and Potential scheme? The aim of the project is to select and train a group of up to twenty athletes male or female aged 14 upwards from the North West area who have the necessary talent to become Olympic Gold medallists in rowing. British rowing has been lucky to find Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Mathew Pinsent who have between them won Olympic gold medals at six consecutive Olympics. We are now aiming to remove the luck and actively hunt out the next Redgraves and Pinsents. Do I have what it takes? There is no hiding from the fact that it is an extremely tough challenge to fight your way into the Great Britain Olympic rowing team. Not everyone has what it takes to succeed. What we do within the scheme is to first test you to see if you have the necessary physical attributes required for success based on some common characteristics of previous successful rowing Olympians. We then interview you if we feel you are highly likely to be successful based on your test results. Then it's up to you to persuade us that you have what it takes to complete the training and work your way up into the team. What are the tests? Where are the tests carried out? Recruitment The recruitment of athletes will be focussed on schools and universities, although anyone with the neccessary talent is eligible. Do I need to have rowed before? There is no requirement to have rowed before. We are very keen to recruit talented non-rowers perhaps from another sport but who wish to become an Olympian in the gold medal winning sport of rowing. We have even recruited people who have no previous sports background but who through our tests have demonstrated exceptional natural strength and endurance. Tell me about the coach? Hamish Burrell – the lead coach for the project started work here at Agecroft rowing club in November 2004. He has a long record of success perhaps most significantly having talent id. Katherine Grainger while she was a student in Edinburgh. Hamish then coached Katherine to GB team level winning Britain's first gold medal at Women's open level in any age group in the U23 women's pair at the 1997 U23 championships in Milan. Katherine won the GB team trials in the single scull the following year and has gone on to win Olympic silver medals at the Sydney and Athens Olympics. Hamish also coached Irish sculler Sinead Jennings, who under his tutelage won world bronze in 2000 and gold the following year. Her gold medal was Ireland's first women's gold medal at a World Championships. Hamish has worked as head coach for the highly regarded Irish rowing team. Hamish has helped many other athletes to international representation and success. He was Chairman of and selector to the Scottish rowing team for a number of years, which saw unprecedented success with the Scottish home international team regularly winning 40% of the home international events during this time. After a spell back working in insurance in his native Scotland the lure of coaching an Olympic champion has brought Hamish back into the sport here at Agecroft rowing club. Adi Dolo – joined the World Class Programme as a Talent Development Coach in February 2006 working alongside Hamish. Adi comes from Wycliffe Sculling Centre where in 2005 the top athlete was a member of the Junior Women’s Quad at the Junior World Championships, where they won a bronze medal (the first sculling medal for a number of years and the first sculling medal in the women’s quad). In the same year Adi coached the Junior Women’s Quad at the Coupe de la Jenuesse (Junior European Championships), which won 2 gold medals, the first time this has ever been achieved. Wycliffe have won Henley Women’s Regatta in consecutive years, winning the junior quad event in 2004 and the junior singles event in 2005. The girls quad also won the “school triple” in 2004, which means the same crew won the Schools’ Head, National Schools Regatta and Henley Women’s Regatta in one season. Previous to working at Wycliffe Adi worked for the Amateur Rowing Association as a Coaching and Development Officer firstly in the North East, based at Durham University, and subsequently in the South West based at Bath University. Her role was to develop clubs at a local level through various initiatives such as “Project Oarsome” and help to implement coach education both locally and nationally. Her first coaching success came whilst coaching at her home club of Southsea Rowing Club where she coached a crew of novice women to win the Junior Women South Coast Championship, the pinnacle of coastal rowing in Britain. Athletes There will be a squad of between 12-20 athletes in the main World Class Start programme running here at Agecroft rowing club. The females have an average height of around 6 foot and the males 6 foot 6 inches. Approximately half of the athletes are of school age and half over 18 years. The athletes are trained to become Olympic champions around their work or studies. There is no pretence that the training involved is anything but hard core. No athlete expects Olympic success to come easy. Agecroft Rowing Club The club provides a first class training environment with gym facilities on site and access to top quality boats. The Salford docks and Manchester Ship Canal are an ideal combination - with the docks offering the perfect environment for beginners and the Ship Canal offering the longer stretch of water for training to elite level. Additional Support The English Institute of Sport in Manchester will offer additional support initially with athlete’s strength and conditioning training. Monthly camps for World Class Start and Potential athletes incorporate lectures from recognised experts in the fields of psychology, physiology and nutrition. |