Clubs revive rowing activities

After her exploits at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Ugandan rower Kathleen Noble set herself to resurrect the local aspects of the sport from limbo.

In January, the inaugural Noble Rowing Clinic at Kisubi Beach attracted 33 athletes and the buzz has been on since.

The athletes – mostly novices, para-rowers and budding rowers from Maroons, Kampala, Kisubi Pirates and UPDF rowing clubs – were taken through safety techniques, rowing strokes, drills and techniques, basics of working an ergometer, advanced drills and individual video assessment of strengths and weaknesses for the elite rowers.

By the end of the year, it had culminated into rowers going for continental and highly-rated international events.

The latest was two months ago when Ugandan rowers Rashida Najjuma and Darius Okello left pumped up for their future after finishing as quarterfinalists at the October 27-28 Africa Beach Rowing Sprints Championships in Hammamet, Tunisia on the back of just three months of preparation.

Najjuma, who started rowing with Kisubi Pirates in July, and Okello, who has been with Maroons Aqua Sport Club a little longer, competed in the singles time trials and later the mixed double event from which they got to the quarters. 

Both are Ndejje University students and have had short stints in rowing and products of Noble's clinics. Najjuma is also a swimmer and was the best female swimmer at the just concluded Eastern Africa University Games while Okello is a runner.

In Tunisia, the athletes had to deal with the Mediterranean Sea’s bigger waves that pale in comparison to Lake Victoria’s where they train. Fortunately, they acclimatized and built confidence after a few days of training and meeting top athletes.

Their coaches Batenga Nakisozi and Richard Kigozi also used the opportunity to attend the October 21-26 World Rowing Development Camp where they learnt the nuances of beach sprints and undertook a Fisa Level 1 coaching course.

Beach sprints event takes place in a beach setting with head-to-head racing taking place in solos, mixed doubles and mixed coxed quads. It begins with a 50m run start before the athletes row out to a buoy and back. The race ends with one rower from each team running to a finish line on the beach.

Meanwhile, the sprints came a week after Noble and male colleagues William Mwanga and Douglas Kisarale rowed (classing rowing) at the Head of the Charles Regatta in USA, considered the largest regatta in the world. Kisarale rowed in an inclusive mixed double with a para-rower.

First local event in a while

Earlier in July, Kisubi Beach had been beehive of activity as local rowers got involved in their first local rowing regatta since the East and Central Africa meet in 2014.

Noble was again offering the technical support through her coaches Ahsan and Linda Iqbal.

The coaches witnessed an indoor rowing competition first then worked with local coaches to take athletes through water sessions which set them up for a regatta on the next day that included single, double and quadruple sculls on a 2km course.

World Indoor Rowing Championships

For some like Maroons Aqua Sport Club members Godfrey Wengo Chan, Jakaya Bayo Odong, Boniface Okello and Johnson Mwaka, the July event was another opportunity to push forward.

The four and female colleagues; Brenda Adokorach and Mary Akech, had come together to take part in the February 25-26 virtual World Indoor Rowing Championships which they put together at Luzira Prisons.

In their team time trial, the men managed to cover an average of 920 metres on their ergometers in three minutes.

They finished sixth behind Finland and Egypt (tied in first at 1,048m), Germany (1,019m), France (1,012m) and Saudi Arabia (987m) while Iraq did not start in the event that was held virtually.

Indoor rowing is always a stress of numbers for Fisa as they hold 500m, 2000m and team time trial events for all able-bodied and adaptive men and women’s age groups (U-19, U-23, open, Masters; from age 30 to 100+) on the same days.

Chan felt they had done well as they were new to the sport then and had had little preparation time while there is continued need to also work on their endurance. They had a powerful two minutes but in this game, if one person powers down, the whole team suffers.

Noble believed the team’s “strength on the day was their effort but they needed to have the patience to spread their effort over the course of the entire three minutes.”

Personal bests 

Competing in the U-23 men’s 2000m, Chan – also a national athletics team 400m runner – took his lessons to the individual races the next day rowing a new personal best of 06:48.4 to finish 13th and take his time down from the 06.58.2 he qualified with in January.

In the men’s 2000m open category, Felix Ouma Ongee reduced time from 07.47.5 to 07.38.0 despite finishing 15th in a race won at 05.41.7 by Belgium’s Ward Lemmelijn.

Adokorach (also a 100m and 200m sprinter) and Mary Akech (a handballer) who competed in the 2000m U-23 category did not manage the PBs but relished their chance as they finished 10th and 11th respectively.

At 08.27.2, Adokorach was almost a second off her qualification 08.26.6. Akech went from 08.40.4 to 08.43.3.

Timeline

January: Noble Rowing Clinic, Kisubi

February: World Indoor Rowing Championships, Luzira

July: Kisubi Beach Regatta

October:

-Africa Beach Rowing Sprints Championships, Tunisia

- Head of the Charles Regatta, USA