Some 30 youth rowing athletes, from 9 Asian federations, came together from 05 -10 September 2024 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in China to participate in a World Rowing Youth Athlete Development Training Camp. The camp was organised by World Rowing Development and Olympic Solidarity with the valuable support of the Asian Rowing Federation (ARF), the Chinese Rowing Association (CRA), and the Organising Committee of the Asian U19 and U23 Championships, which will begin on Wednesday 11 September 2024, offering races in 20 boat classes with a total of 143 entries from 19 federations.
The camp was organised at the Shenyang International Rowing Center on the Hun River over 5 days by a World Rowing coaching team consisting of Chris Perry, Development Lead Technical Expert for Asia and Sam Wong, World Rowing Development Coach, supported by two senior coaches from CRA – Ms. Qu Wenchuang and Mr. Jiang Bo. The participating teams from Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, UAE and Vietnam were accompanied by 12 of their own coaches, who were also able to benefit from the learning experience provided.
The camp started with a swim test for all participating athletes and a briefing on safety and the camp code of conduct. The ability to swim and stay afloat is essential for water sports and everyone taking part in any development programme offered by World Rowing should be able to swim 50m and keep their head above water unassisted for three minutes.
Camp activities continued with guided daily on-water sessions and video analysis, as well as daily lectures covering topics including Olympic and World Rowing values, safeguarding sports participants from harassment and abuse, prevention of competition manipulation and match fixing, clean athlete and anti-doping education. In addition, rowing-specific topics related to testing performance for athletes, the World Rowing testing protocol and database, simplified physiology of rowing and race planning were included.
The camp offered the opportunity for the young rowers to come together in a spirit of friendship, mutual support and collaboration, and to engage and learn from one another at the start of their high-performance journey. Coaches also had the chance to learn from lead World Rowing and Chinese national coaches and share best practices to take home after their visit.
The programme included 5 female athletes and 4 coaches from Iran, who joined the camp and will also participate in the Championships through an ongoing parallel project with Iran Rowing Federation, supported by Iran Olympic Committee, to develop women’s rowing.
The camp was a great success and excellent support was provided from the Shenyang International Rowing Center, located inside the Olympic Park on the Hun River, with excellent facilities including an indoor rowing tank, training and fitness areas and a serene rowing course in the heart of Shenyang city – overlooking its landmark Grand Theatre and the lush green parklands along the banks of the regatta course.
The camp participants will start their races from 11 September 2024 and will continue racing over 4 days of competition, supported by the World Rowing Development Team onsite. It is hoped this youth development camp will be a recurring activity for the Asian continent, to continue the development of rowing and to assist more athletes to climb towards the high-performance level.
