Rowing Canada Aviron announces four nation indoor rowing challenge

Wednesday May 6, 2020 – Victoria, BC
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rowing Canada Aviron, British Rowing, Rowing Australia and Rowing NZ have today announced the One Minute Challenge, a joint initiative for indoor rowers across the respective nations.

Taking place over the weekend of May 7-11, the mass-participation competition challenges anyone with a rowing machine at home to see how far they can row in one minute. Members of the public will compete alongside rowers from each nation’s Olympic and Paralympic teams for individual awards in various age, weight and Para rowing categories, with international bragging rights also at stake for the country that records the furthest combined distance.

To keep track of the results, participants will be asked to log their scores on a live, real-time web platform, then share their results and nominate friends on social media using #minutechallenge.

The web platform will be open for entries throughout this coming weekend, opening at 4:00pmPDT/7:00pmEDT on Thursday May 7 and closing at 3:59pmPDT/6:59pmEDT on Monday May 11.

Rowing Canada Aviron CEO, Terry Dillon, said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand to highlight the value and connectivity of indoor rowing, both during these unprecedented times and in our everyday lives. We look forward to challenging ourselves and our fellow competitors to get active and take on the #minutechallenge this weekend.”

British Rowing CEO Andy Parkinson said: “In these uncertain times, we’re delighted to be able to join together in friendly competition and motivate indoor rowers across our four nations.”

“This couldn’t have happened without fantastic collaboration between each of our governing bodies – it’s been a real team effort to organize this challenge and we look forward to further exciting initiatives together in the future.”

Rowing NZ Chief Executive Simon Peterson added, “Our indoor rowing event launched today alongside Canada, Great Britain and Australia is a humbling reminder that New Zealand’s rowing community are not alone in our eagerness to get back out on the water, and highlights a great relationship that exists between our counterparts across the globe. These are challenging times but we remain impressed with not only our domestic rowing community, but also the global rowing community who continually seek the connection and camaraderie that comes with our sport.”

Ian Robson, CEO of Rowing Australia, echoed his colleagues’ sentiments, saying, “We’ve had some fantastic indoor rowing competitions in Australia during these unprecedented times and it is wonderful that this One Minute Challenge enables us to connect, virtually, across the world to compete. We’re all in this global pandemic together and it is heartening to see all our rowing communities, across the world, coming together to compete in a digital format.”

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For more information:
Colleen Coderre
RCA Communications Lead
comm@rowingcanada.org

Liz Montroy
RCA Communications and Events Coordinator
lmontroy@rowingcanada.org