On Friday, February 23rd Izzy Maddison from Durham ARC achieved 10th place out of 44 entrants in the Year 10 girls 5 minutes race at the 2024 National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships (NJIRC) at the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds.
Izzy was one of around 900 participants at the Northern edition of what has in recent years become a twin centre competition so as to be more inclusive. Organised by London Youth Rowing (LYR) the first event was staged last week in Leeds and the second will see around 2600 competitors converge on the Copper Box Arena in London on March 1st. She completed 1225 metres on the ergo in 5 minutes. Results from the race have been provided by Time Team here. Results from all the Friday races are here.
Izzy is in the J15 squad and is having a great season achieving victories at WJ16 4x- and WJ16 2x at Durham Small Boats Head as well as in the WJ18 4x in the LDS Series at South Hylton and at Durham ASBH.
Izzy Maddison and Sophie Hancill in the WJ16 2x at Durham SBH
The NJIRC was first established in 2007 before moving to its new home at the Copper Box Arena in London’s Olympic Park in 2019. LYR launched the Active Row Leeds programme in 2021 as its first school engagement programme outside London. The programme aims to work with state secondary schools and plans to expand to schools outside Leeds. The NJIRC is supported by Henley Royal Regatta Charitable Trust, British Rowing and Concept 2.
On a massive weekend for indoor rowing there was also a bronze medal for 2016 Olympic silver medallist Jess Eddie in the Women’s Versa Challenge at the 2024 World Rowing Indoor Championships which took place in Prague on February 23rd and 24th.