Well done St Philip’s rowers!
Massive congratulations to the rowers who completed the Great River Race, also known as London’s Other Marathon on Saturday. The crew of staff and students took just over three hours to complete the race and had the most amazing experience on the day.
The principal, who was part of the crew said afterwards: “The awesome St Philip’s crew, you trained hard and brought your A game as always. You make me very proud to be the one that gets to steer our ship day in day out!”
The Great River Race is an event for traditional boats powered by a minimum of four oars or paddles on the River Thames. Thousands of rowers took part in 270 boats as they rowed the 21.6 mile course from the Docklands to Richmond in this annual event. In the tradition of the Watermen’s role as the taxi drivers of the river, each boat must carry a passenger. They were cheered on by spectators and well-wishers lining the bridges and banks as the boats went past.
Our team were honoured to crew the Royal Shallop Jubilant as part of our school’s 70th anniversary celebrations. St Philip’s has been involved in the Skerries for Schools project for the last ten years, giving our students the opportunity to learn to row on the Thames in traditional boats.
Over the years we formed a close bond with a huge advocate of youth rowing, Robin Corti. Sadly Robin passed away earlier this year after his battle with cancer and so we used the race as an opportunity to fundraise for the Royal Marsden Hospital in his memory. We are delighted to have raised over £2600 already but there is still time to donate via the link below if you would like to.
