New South Wales

NEW SOUTH WALES (NSW)

2021 has once again been a challenging year for Australia dealing with COVID-19 and this has continued to have an enormous impact on all areas of our NSW rowing community. Rowing NSW was lucky enough to host our annual NSW State Championships in early February under strict COVID-19 protocols. Whilst numbers were down on previous years due to state border closures there was a sense of joy around the boat park with long awaited interstate reunions. We successfully hosted our Schoolgirl and Schoolboy Head of the River Regattas and Edward Trickett Grade Championships. Unfortunately that is where our luck ended. The NSW State Masters Championships were first postponed due to flooding causing water quality issues at the Sydney International Regatta Centre (SIRC) then cancelled due to the second wave of COVID-19 which led to a Sydney wide shut down. NSW was to host the 2021 Aon Australian Rowing Championships (ARC) in late May but due to the flooding at SIRC we were unable to host the event with it eventually being relocated to West Lakes, South Australia. Congratulations to Rowing South Australia on hosting a wonderful regatta at short notice. With a statewide cancellation of all mass gatherings and organised sport for the second year in a row, Rowing NSW and our Clubs were forced to adapt again, with Clubs moving their training online using the ergometers, as well as single scull on-water training. Rowing NSW was able to host the NSW Indoor Rowing Series completely online during the period of lockdown which was greatly appreciated by the NSW rowing community, giving many people something to train for whilst in lockdown. The emergence of a new strain of COVID-19 had a heavy impact on the end of 2021 with all regattas cancelled and unable to be held in December 2021. Throughout 2021, Rowing NSW has continued to work with Rowing Australia on the National Pathways program working with our partners New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) and our four High Performance Clubs: Sydney Rowing Club, UTS Rowing Club, Sydney University Boat Club and Mosman Rowing Club. We wanted to ensure the road to Australian representation remains strong for NSW athletes throughout the challenging COVID-19 lockdown and the knock-on effects of limited travel and competition opportunities. For the 12 months to 30 June 2021, Rowing New South Wales reported a surplus of $105,648.00. This was mainly due to the support Rowing NSW had received from the NSW Office of Sport under the NSW Government Community Sport COVID-19 Recovery Program mixed with our ability to host the majority of regattas throughout the season. Rowing NSW launched our 2021-2024 Strategic Plan with strong focus on identifying new regatta opportunities, regional club development, athlete growth, development of new disciplines, school rower retention programs and coach development.

STEPHEN DONNELLEY

President - Rowing New South Wales