Singapore Rowing Association aims to boost talent pool through indoor rowing events

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s national rowing body is aiming to grow the country’s pool of rowers and introduce more people to the sport by holding more indoor rowing events. 

At the inaugural Singapore Indoor Rowing Championships on Saturday (Mar 30), nearly 120 competitors raced against one other on indoor rowing machines. 

These machines are opening up more possibilities for competition - without getting into the water or battling the hot weather - and for people to stay healthy, said the Singapore Rowing Association, which hopes to make the championships an annual event.

It spent about S$7,000 (US$5,190) to host the indoor rowing event at The Row Space on Aliwal Street. 

“Indoor rowing is a fantastic competitive event. People come together, they can monitor their performance. It’s an all-weather sport,” said Singapore Rowing Association president Paul Supramaniam.

“We want to make sure that indoor rowing is seen as a core element with a national outreach of preventive healthcare. Indoor rowing actually does make people fitter, healthier (and) stronger. It's also part of active ageing.”

The association has plans to hold more such competitions to boost the sport, Mr Supramaniam added. 

“We could actually have a bilateral competition, say between Singapore and Indonesia (or) Singapore and Malaysia, where we have the machines here and the machines there - without the teams even actually having to travel. They could have a bilateral competition between themselves connected by video.”

The new leadership team that took over the association about two years ago is determined to cultivate talent. 

It wants to capitalise on the virtual nature of indoor rowing, and is also exploring virtual reality to bring actual rowing venues to the rowers.

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