NJIRC 2025 is Going Virtual!
Get ready for the most inclusive and biggest NJIRC yet-because this time, we're taking the event GLOBAL!
NJIRC has always been the highlight of our year, with staff, volunteers, and young people alike calling it the best day of the calendar. This time, we want to make it even easier for people to take part and we're making it even bigger by turning it into a week-long virtual celebration! From March 15th to 21st, 2025, young people from rowing clubs, schools, and individuals from across the UK and the world can join in, compete, and aim for the top spot in our virtual race arena.
More exciting details will be released soon, but for now, it's time to get those training kilometres in and start warming up those rowing machines.
Congratulations to our NJIRC 2024 Winners
Year 7 Boys - The Ruth Gorse Academy -Treasure Idahosa - 549m
Year 7 Girls - Mossbourne Rowing - Chinenye Ikwukaeme - 507m
Year 8 Boys - Northampton School for Boys - Max Roper - 886m
Year 8 Girls - Walbrook Rowing Club - Jessica Harper - 800m
Year 9 Boys - Northampton School for Boys - Mikey Graham - 1232m
Year 9 Girls - Sir William Borlase Grammar - Amelie Grice - 1052m
Year 10 Boys - Mossbourne Rowing Academy - Josef Robinson - 1480m
Year 10 Boys - Infinity Boat Club - Abdullah Sajad - 1480m
Year 10 Girls - Putney High School Boat club - Florence Grose - 1393m
Year 11 Boys - Shrewsbury School - Richard Wolskel - 1871m
Year 11 Girls - St Angela's Ursuline School - Daniela Raguckaite - 1620m
Year 12 Boys - Poole Grammar School - Eddie Hall - 06:38.5
Year 12 Girls - Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club - Aimee Mace - 07:32.5
Year 13 Boys - Shanklin Sandown Rowing Club - Fred Giemza-Pipe - 06:27.2
Year 13 Girls - Millfield School Boat Club - Lucy Buckingham - 07:24.1
Year 7 Boys SEND - The Ruth Gorse Academy - Olaf Grudowski - 489m
Year 7 Girls SEND - The Bruntcliffe Academy - Teagan Brown - 458m
Year 8 Boys SEND - Abingdon House School - Elijah Santagada - 553m
Year 8 Girls SEND - The Ruth Gorse Academy - Yasina Mirhadizdeh - 421m
Year 9 Boys SEND - Abingdon House School - Jake Nassim - 585m
Year 9 Girls SEND - Highshore School - Alisha Abioye - 466m
Year 10 Boys SEND - Thomas Barrett - 623m
Year 10 Girls SEND - The Ruth Gorse Academy - Aya El Shafei - 491m
Year 11 Boys SEND - Stormont House School - Jose Marquez - 614m
Year 11 Girls SEND - Stormont House School - Aisha Ahmed - 500m
Year 12 Boys SEND - SMMA The Courtyard - Charlie Cutmore - 555m
Year 12 Girls SEND - Stormont House School - Leona Addai - 474m
Year 13 Boys SEND - Drumbeat School - Tyrese Bellinfantie-Tietie - 634m
Year 13 Girls SEND - SMMA The Courtyard - Angelina Bou-Chedid - 507m
Junior Boys Relay (2112m) - Northampton School for Boys A - 06:39.3
Junior Girls Relay (2112m) - Nottingham & Union Rowing Club A - 07:41. 5
Senior Boys Relay (2112m) - Northampton School for Boys B - 05:58.5
Senior Girls Relay (2112m) - Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club C - 06:47.4
Henley Royal Regatta Charitable Trust
The Henley Royal Regatta Charitable Trust (HRRCT) is the lead sponsor of NJIRC 2022.
HRRCT has supported the competition for a number of years and we are grateful for their continued support. The Trust, funded mainly from donations from Henley Royal Regatta, encourages and supports young people still receiving education or undergoing training to row or scull. HRRCT funds LYR's Active Row Leeds programme, as well as the "Step Up" coach development programme which is helping to make rowing's workforce more diverse. Other HRRCT funded projects, including Warrington Youth Rowing and Oarsome Chance are competing at NJIRC.
In October 2021, the Trust also staged the "Rocking the Boat 2021" conference, bringing together people from rowing, education and sport for development to discuss how to boost the future of grassroots rowing in the UK.
History of NJIRC
Take a journey through the NJIRC past
2007
Inaugural NJIRC
840 Participants
Location: Hammersmith Town Hall
The first ever NJIRC! LYR worked with LB Hammersmith and Fulham deliver an event in the borough. The Festival of Sport was only just getting started though... a climbing wall was the only other activity running alongside the rowing!
2008
New Year, New Location!
1100 Participants
Location: Battersea Evolution
Following the success of the inaurural NJIRC, LYR knew the 2008 edition would be bigger and better. We needed a new venue - Battersea Evolution sponsored the event and was our home for the next three years! The new venue helped us take NJIRC to the next level.
2009
NJIRC embraces the Arts!
1500 Participants
Location: Battersea Evolution
In our second year at Battersea, we worked with a local college to bring an artistic flavour to NIJRC. Students at the college painted artworks around the themes of water, youth and teamwork during the day of the event, which were then used as backdrops at the prize-giving
2010
A million light bulbs!
2080 Participants
Location: Battersea Evolution
In our final year at Battersea, we used the million bulb ceiling cloth at the venue to let people know what colour (representing a particular age group) were racing next - nobody had any excuse for missing their race that year!
2011
5 Years Old & Still Growing...
2140 Participants
Location: Lee Valley Athletics Centre
As NJIRC turned 5, the event continued to grow. Word was spreading between schools and the rowing community, and more and more groups from outside London wanted to take part. The move up to the Lee Valley Athletics stadium allowed people from all over the UK to drive to the event - it was such a great venue it would be NJIRC's home for the next 8 years!
2012
NJIRC & The Boat Race
3130 Participants
Location: Lee Valley Athletics Centre
After many years of talking to the Boat Race, we were delighted to welcome both the Oxford and Cambridge crews from that year's boat race to the event. The Oxbridge rowers helped out on the race floor, gave out medals and cheered on the young people taking part. Two different ends of the same sport, it was brilliant to see them getting involved and providing inspiration for everyone taking part!
2013
NJIRC meets GB Rowing
1850 Participants
Location: Lee Valley Athletics Centre
The first edition of NJIRC following the amazing success of the London 2012 Olympics, we were incredibly lucky to welcome members of the GB Rowing Team at NJIRC. The team ran a series of Q&A's for the participants so they could meet their heroes post-London 2012.
2014
Festival feel!
1900 Participants
Location: Lee Valley Athletics Centre
Now firmly established on the racing calendar, NJIRC continued to develop. Using the space of the Lee Valley venue, we set up a festival feel to the event, with lots of activities alongside the rowing and numerous food trucks. The aim was to give competitors a fantastic day out of school and give the NJIRC the feel of a truly National event.
2015
A sea of rowing machines...
1890 Participants
Location: Lee Valley Athletics Centre
As NJIRC continued to develop, for the first time ever we used 120 rowing machines on the race floor. In the new set up, the machines were facing each other giving the event another competitive edge!
2016
10 Up... and Row4Results
1759 Participants
Location: Lee Valley Athletics Centre
Ten Years Old! To celebrate, for the first time we ran the Row4Results grand finale, funded by Tideway, alongside NJIRC. This additional element to the event was a huge success and helped forge LYR's partnership with Tideway which helped fund the hugely successful 2017-2021 Active Row programme.
2017
The Great Outdoors
1930 Participants
Location: Lee Valley Athletics Centre
We continued to develop the outdoor activities running alongside the rowing competition, including activities from the NFL, Triathlon, Cycling Clubs and the ever-popular Smoothie bikes. The space freed up indoors allowed our partners to showcase employment and training opportunities for young people.
2018
Goodbye Lee Valley!
2130 Participants
Location: Lee Valley Athletics Centre
2018 was NJIRC's final year at Lee Valley! After a brilliant 8 years, it was time to refresh and reboot NJIRC. But Lee Valley went out on a high, with the most participants since 2012 and the biggest and best Festival to date.
2019
Race The Thames!
1950 Participants
Location: Copper Box Arena
After nearly a decade at Lee Valley, NJIRC moved onto the Olympic Park, taking up a long-planned residency at the Copper Box Arena. The new venue gave a "big arena" feel to NJIRC and allowed us to launch the first ever edition of Race The Thames, with 11 corporate teams fundraising to help cover the costs of running NJIRC.
2020
Copper Box Take Two
1987 Participants
Location: Copper Box Arena
NJIRC was again a roaring success in its second year at the Copper Box. Race The Thames continued to grow, with 18 teams raising £30,000 for charity. With covid already looming on the horizon, we were delighted we were able to run the event - NJIRC 2020 was one of the very last rowing events to go ahead before lockdown just a few weeks later.
2021
The first-ever virtual NJIRC...
3500 Participants
Virtual
With the country still emerging from the pandemic, NJIRC 2021 was delayed to May to give time for schools to get (somewhat) back to normal and participants the chance to train for the event. While a challenge, running the event virtually has given us a new way to think about NJIRC and while we plan to be back at the Copper Box in 2022, virtual racing will help us open up NJIRC to ever more young people around the UK!
2022
Second Virtual NJIRC
7000 Participants
Virtual
NJIRC 2022 was once again ran as a virtual event, due to uncertainty about the impact of the Omicron wave of covid. As in the previous year, we used an online “NJIRC Arena” to bring together participants from across the country, with online content including leaderboards showing results and medal winners, content covering career opportunities and life skills from our corporate partners and a Lands End to John O’Groats challenge. The event was a massive success, with 7,382 verified entries from 164 different groups.
2023
NJIRC heads North
3,000 Participants
London & Leeds
For the first time ever, NJIRC runs outside London as part of LYR's commitment to make the event as accessible as possible to young people around the country. NJIRC runs in Leeds and London on the same day, with LYR Founder and President Jim Downing opening the event in Leeds and closing 6 hours later in London!