On Sunday, February 3rd, the Lynngator Rowing Club from Lynngate Jr PS, rowed their boats to gold, silver and bronze at the 2013 Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC) at the Hershey Center in Mississauga. The rowing team, made up of 5 girls and 9 boys in grades 5 and 6, has been preparing for this event for one year with their coach, Principal Diane Kriksciunas. “Wednesday after-school team practices plus daily 500m workouts before school or during recesses got our team in tip-top shape,” said the proud coach.
Lynngate won gold/silver/bronze in Boys Aged 10, gold/silver/bronze in the Boys Aged 11, and silver/bronze in the Girls Aged 10-11 categories.
"Rowing is very hard work,” said grade 5 student William. “By the end of the 500m race my legs were hurting and I was dehydrated. But the effort was worth it because our team did great!"
Silver medalist, Harni, has the following to say about her accomplishment: "Last year, when I first started rowing I was really bad, but I worked myself up to achieve 2nd place at the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships for Future Olympian Girls, 10-11 yrs."
The championship competition ended with a nice surprise when 10-year-old Chrissanth won the raffle for a free Concept2 indoor rower (a.k.a. "erg"). "When my name was drawn for the raffle," Chissanth remembers. "I thought: oh my god, that was MY name! I won a free erg for Lynngate Jr PS! It was worth all my pain."
