Victorious rowers

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) Rowing Club was named the Club of the Year at the South African Rowing Federation’s annual awards function.

The 45-member club is one of the biggest varsity clubs in the country.

The awards were hosted at Old Johannians at St John’s College.

Head rowing coach of UJ, Dennis Howard said the award inspired the team for the start of their programme next year. “This is an incredible achievement as it is not often you manage to reach and separate all your goals,” said Howard.

He added the highlight of the year was winning the overall University Sport South Africa (USSA) points trophy.

The UJ rowers will attend their annual December camp at Roodeplaat Dam to prepare for the National Sprint Championship in January next year.

“This has been the goal for the club for many years and this is the first time we have managed to win the USSA points trophy,” said Howard. “The successful year came through continuous training and dedication to one goal by the entire club. We believe it is the culture within the club that makes it a success. Each member is a part of the rowing family and we support each other in all we do.”

According to Howard, the club rows on Victoria Lake in Germiston and Roodeplaat Dam in Pretoria and their gym work takes place at UJ’s Auckland Park Kingsway gym. He added that the main challenge that the rowers faced was balancing their academics and training schedule.

“Obviously, if you want to win, you need to train harder. By training harder, you have less time for academics. We are proud to announce that every member of the club is doing well academically. If you want to be good at rowing you need to be good at managing all aspects of life. You are only as good as your base.”

He added that next year, the club’s priority would be to maintain its great performances of this year and continue to increase the number of members in the club.