The Bermuda Rowing Association team competed at the Crash-B Sprints in Boston, Massachusetts, at the weekend and returned home with some promising performances.

The Crash-B is the World Championship for indoor rowing held every February, in which each participant races over a distance of 2,000 metres on Concept2 indoor rowers.

The team featured first-time competitors, Pat and Elsie Hastings, a father and daughter pair, who started rowing last summer, as well as another newcomer to the sport, Daragh Crowley, who finished just 56 seconds off the overall winner in the under-30 year category.

“The competition is unbelievably strong and the event has a real prestigious history,” said Barbara O’Shaughnessy, vice-president of the Bermuda Rowing Association.

“It means a great deal for the Bermuda team to go and compete and see some of the best and fastest in the world in action.

“This year, we had some really interesting stories with the father and daughter duo of Pat and Elsie and obviously the performance of Daragh.

“He is a newcomer to the team and has only just started indoor rowing. He obviously has some excellent natural talent and he did a great job at the championship to perform as strongly as he did. When not on the water rowing, members of the association train on indoor rowers and this was the fourth year that the Bermuda Rowing Association sent a team to Boston.

Casting her eye back to the open water, O’Shaughnessy, revealed that the association is heading in a new direction as they aim to help grow the sport further in Bermuda.

“We’re looking at a focus on coastal rowing and hopefully down the line we are hoping to have some championships held in Bermuda,” she added.

“Coastal rowing is one of the fastest-growing disciplines in the sport and it is something that can be done all-year round.

“We really want to get more young people involved and hopefully we can build the interest in rowing on island.”

For more information on the Bermuda Rowing Association and its various programmes on offer to adults and juniors please email bermudarowingassociation@gmail.com