Thales in the UK organise nationwide indoor rowing challenge

Thales in the UK have organised an indoor rowing challenge to raise funds for their charity partner, the British Heart Foundation

Speaking to British Rowing, Richard Packer, Chief Engineer (Research, Technology & Innovation) at Thales in the UK, says that the company sees this not only as a fantastic opportunity to raise money for the British Heart Foundation, but also as a staff team-building exercise and a chance to raise the profile of both indoor and on-water rowing.

The challenge is planned to take place on 2 July, the day before Henley Royal Regatta starts.

Thales in the UK has 10 major sites, most of which are in towns and cities with rowing clubs. Currently, seven have signed up to participate, covering approximately 5,000 of Thales in the UK’s 6,500 employees: Belfast, Cheadle Heath, Crawley, Glasgow, London, Reading and Templecombe.

On the day, there will be two challenges for participants to get involved in – one to encourage people simply to get on the machine and row for as long as they like at whatever pace they like, and one for the more competitive participants:

• Site challenge – the site that covers the greatest overall distance on the day.
• Individual challenge – the fastest man and fastest woman over 2112m, the length of the Henley Royal Regatta course.

Across all participating sites, the goal is to cover 344 km in total – the distance from London to Paris in a straight line.

Across the sites there will also be a range of activities, including a talk in Reading from British Rowing Chair, Mark Davies on 27 June as a precursor to the challenge, and support from triple-Olympic gold medallist Andrew Triggs-Hodge. Event t-shirts will also be offered thanks to Rock the Boat, with all proceeds going to the BHF.

To donate, please visit https://www.justgiving.com/companyteams/tirc.