National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships 2026

Four Juniors from Tees head to NJIRC 26

Four juniors from Tees Rowing Club decided to take on the best of the Northern rowing scene in Leeds for the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships 2026 (NJIRC 26).


Jack Holden and Malachi Fell represented the club in the Boys Yr 12 (J17) category. After a strong start from both Tees rowers they kept going throughout the 2km race and finished really strongly to both record personal bests. Malachi finished 10th in 08:07.7, a massive PB from him. Jack finished in 07:14.0 and won the silver medal for his category. Jack was complimented on his performance by one of the Yorkshire PDA coaches, and will be put forward for testing in a couple of weeks. Both Jack and Malachi are new to rowing this season, but both are clearly showing a lot of promise and potential.


Sophie Bentley represented Tees in the Girls Yr 10 (J15) category. Sophie had a strong and steady start, executing her race plan perfectly to settle into second place. She overhauled the leader by the halfway mark, but was chased down by her rival to provide one of the closest finishes during racing – a dead heat completing 1301m in 5 minutes, and securing a joint silver medal as well.

Katie Harker competed in Girls Yr 8 (J13) category in a large field of 63 athletes. She had a strong start, but faded a little in the middle of her 3 minute race. She was surrounded by athletes who were much bigger than her, but she kept her cool and finished with 640m in her 3 minutes, to finish 36th out of 63.

An amazing day and awesome performances from the Tees juniors, who were well supported by each other and their parents.