Response to Government Statement on Sport & Recreation
The Government has announced further plans for the re-opening of the sport and recreation sector – in line with these plans, British Rowing has updated our guidance and will be submitting plans for future steps to the Government for approval
British Rowing welcomes last night’s statement from Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, announcing plans for re-opening more of the sport and recreation sector.
The updated guidance from the Government covered two main areas:
- Indoor gyms and training facilities may open from 25 July, subject to following the Government’s advice on being COVID-19 Secure.
- Governing Bodies (i.e. British Rowing) must submit a plan to receive Government permission to restart team-versions of their sports. In rowing, we would consider this to be crew boat rowing and competition.
On the basis of these changes, we have updated our guidance to explicitly rule out crew boats (until a plan for this has been approved by the Government) and published this as version 4.1. We will provide a further update towards the end of next week related to other aspects of the Government advice including indoor facilities and gyms.
In summary, the current position of our advice for rowing is:
| Rowing training – in singles or single household boats | Allowed subject to British Rowing guidance |
| Rowing training – in crew boats of mixed households | Not permitted |
| Rowing competition | Not permitted |
| Club toilets | Can be opened subject to mitigations to be COVID-19 Secure |
| Club changing rooms | Should remain closed |
| Club gyms and indoor training facilities | From 25 July, can be opened subject to mitigations to be COVID-19 Secure |
| Club bars and catering facilities | Can be opened subject to mitigations to be COVID-19 Secure |
| Club throughways | Can be opened subject to mitigations to be COVID-19 Secure |
- Rowing training – in singles or single household boats
- Allowed subject to British Rowing guidance
- Rowing training – in crew boats of mixed households
- Not permitted
- Rowing competition
- Not permitted
- Club toilets
- Can be opened subject to mitigations to be COVID-19 Secure
- Club changing rooms
- Should remain closed
- Club gyms and indoor training facilities
- From 25 July, can be opened subject to mitigations to be COVID-19 Secure
- Club bars and catering facilities
- Can be opened subject to mitigations to be COVID-19 Secure
- Club throughways
- Can be opened subject to mitigations to be COVID-19 Secure
British Rowing will be reviewing the framework set out for government and preparing a submission to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport for the next steps in opening up more of the sport.
