Marlow Paras ventured into a bit of a trailblazing with their Supported 4+ this Sunday. The group had experimented with sweep rowing in the past including a number of 4+ outings, but this season it plans to train regularly and compete in this format. Ben Marsden has long been keen to get back to sweeping which he did at university, but due to the diversity of impairments assembling a critical mass of those compatible enough is often challenging in para. All of the local regatta adaptive/para racing in the UK to date has been in 1x and 2x formats. The catalyst to taking on 4+ has been the arrival of Ilse Taylor (former GB Paraequestrian) and Amelia Jones (Great Marlow School rower who was left impaired after a brain tumor last year) who both have arm impairments making the management of both blades in sculling quite challenging. But the sweep works quite well. Also, Ilse is a member of the GB Development Squad working for a place at Paris 2024 and her impairment classification (PR3-PD) competes in the 4+ format. With limited ability to feather with their inboard hand, we experimented successfully with a number of outboard feathering techniques. Big thanks to Kiki Quibell’s assertive coxing keeping us together and taking away the steering worries, as well as to coach David Haggas who has led the initiative from the beginning and got everyone all going together. We have 3 paras who will be rowing the 4+ regularly (Ben, Ilse, Amelia) and Assistant Coach Tom Stanton-Ketley who is stepping in as a regular support rower. Given various availabilities, we would welcome anyone who is interesting in joining a session as a support rower (bow side mostly, or as the Americans call it properly “starboard”), drop a note to Bruce Lynn. |
