Return to Rowing Guidance Version 7

We have updated our Return to Rowing Guidance to version seven, incorporating learnings from our test competition and updates in relation to recent changes to Government guidance and legislation

As we release the latest version (seven) of our Return to Rowing guidance, I felt it was a good time to reflect on the period that has led to now. It’s a word that you will be familiar with, and maybe overused, however, the only way I can describe the last eight months is unprecedented. Never before in recent times have we seen a complete shutdown of rowing clubs and competitions. Clearly, rowing has had to take a back seat to the wider concerns about COVID-19 and, even now, as we are able to return to some rowing, public health must remain the number one priority for all of us.

The fact that we’ve been able to return to any rowing at all is testament to the incredible efforts of clubs and volunteers across the country. It’s been a hugely challenging situation with ever-changing guidance and rules from the Government, different restrictions in different local areas and, fundamentally, a lot of unknowns. Nailing jelly to the wall doesn’t even come close!! I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone in the rowing community: those volunteers helping put plans and risk assessments in place, coaches finding innovative ways to keep their rowers engaged and all those rowers supporting their clubs by following both the letter and spirit of the guidance.

The Government has been clear: the next six months are going to continue to be challenging. Ultimately, we don’t know quite how it will play out and whilst we hope for the best, it seems likely we will see a series of local restrictions and ongoing changes to the national guidance that we will have to respond to. This may well mean we have to reverse back into earlier, previous phases in response to Government guidance and so it is incredibly important that clubs and competitions are prepared for this. As things change, we will do everything we can to support clubs and competitions with timely advice and our teams remain on hand to help. In the first instance, clubs should contact [email protected] and competitions should contact [email protected].

This document is designed to help clubs, rowers, coaches and competitions by providing guidance about the various considerations that need to be taken into account when rowing in this pandemic environment. I appreciate this is a long document but please do take the time to read it and use it as a reference to dip in and out as you develop your plans. Clubs and competitions looking to deliver any rowing activity need to consider the advice in this document and use it to help conduct their own risk assessments for their own local environment as only you know how this advice will affect your own local situation. Thank you to everyone who has helped feed into the creation of this guidance. It is for you, the rowing community, and so your feedback is critical to its development so we can make sure it is as useful as possible.

Over the last few months it has been fantastic to see the rowing community come together to help their communities and members and I know that we will see more of this over the coming months. Thank you for continuing to respect the guidance from the Government and for your ongoing patience and support.

Stay safe!

Andy Parkinson

Chief Executive Officer | British Rowing

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What to do if you have questions

If you are…

• an individual member – you should contact your club in the first instance to understand their COVID-Secure protocols.
• a club (including a school or university boat club) – please contact our Club Support team via [email protected]
• an event or competition – please contact our competitions team via [email protected]