Jamaica pushing for rowing growth

Over the last year, the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) has been exploring rowing as an avenue of national development by lending its support to the Jamaica Rowing Federation (JRF). Through the JRF, the country has received an endorsement from the Jamaican Olympic Association and has formed a national rowing team, which is comprised primarily of CMI students and alumni.

In 2013, the federation met with the Ministers of Sports and Education to share the vision of rowing becoming an institutionalised sporting activity in Jamaican schools, primarily at the secondary and post-secondary levels.

Recently, Jamaica made a big push to send a rowing team to the 2015 Pan American qualification regatta held in Mexico City. In light of this regatta, an open recruitment drive was launched and a 10-day training camp was held. The individuals showing the best adaptation to endurance, agility and strength training during the camp were selected – some of whom had never seen a rowing shell before the camp.

The athletes selected by the end of the camp were between 17 and 22 years of age. They would compete in one of four boat classes at the qualification regatta – the men’s single sculls, the men’s pair, the men’s double sculls and the women’s double sculls.

In the three months leading up to the regatta, the athletes trained 12 hours per week over three days of training per week, in addition to their studies. As there are no large bodies of water or rivers in Jamaica to practice, they used a 3.5km stretch of water in the Kingston Harbour, outside the shipping lane.

Their trip to Mexico, however, was not as smooth as they had hoped. The boats they received were of poor quality, needing constant replacement of broken parts, which deprived the team of valuable on-water time. The athletes also had to adjust physically to higher training demands, which led to minor injuries and prevented the female boat from competing. Further disappointment was experienced when the seat of the men’s pair fell out, 500m into their race.

But Vice-President of the federation and Coach Leon McNeil says: “I was aware that it would have been difficult for Jamaica to qualify for the Pam-Am 2015 games, but one of the objectives going to Mexico was to show that even though we have only been officially back in rowing for a few months, Jamaica is here to compete, not participate.”

“Since the Mexico trip we have been growing constantly and have approximately 35 persons rowing now, of which 10 are females of varying ages,” says McNeil.

And the aim is high for seeing the numbers of rowers increase in the near future. The expectation is for them to double by the time the new collegiate programme starts in the fall. “We anticipate having 150 persons rowing by August 2015,” says McNeil.