On the back of Team GB’s successful showing on the water at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Cambridge 99 Rowing Club is throwing open its doors to the public for the Great British Rowing Weekend.

From 7-8 September, clubs around the country will be welcoming their local communities, giving them the chance to give rowing a try, with British Rowing looking to grow visibility and participation in the sport.

Based in what is a rowing hotspot, Cambridge 99 have around 200 members, with racing squads have four on-water sessions and three off-water sessions a week and juniors doing double sessions at weekends.

The club will be hosting on-water and indoor taster sessions as well as social events, such as a barbecue, during the weekend and will also be running the Cambridge Autumn Regatta on Sunday September 8.

Club captain/director Keith Garrett said: “It coincides with our regatta, so there’s that on the Sunday and there’s dragon boats on the Saturday.

“We’ll attempt to do an Erg competition just to teach people about rowing on the Saturday, with the dragon boats going on – the dragon boats are a corporate event that we partner with.

“Then on Sunday, there’s our regatta and we’ll do a similar kind of thing.

“Obviously, most people who will be there can row, but we will invite people for taster sessions because a lot of people wander by.

“Basically, we’ll take an Ergometer up and invite them to have a quick go and have a talk to them about rowing.

“We won’t be taking them out on the boats because it will be continuous rowing during the regatta.”

After a disappointing Games in Tokyo, the British rowing team enjoyed a spectacular return to form during the Paris Olympics, winning nine medals including three golds, and have more success in their sights at the ongoing Paralympics.

Cambridge 99 pride themselves on their charity work, with Garrett saying: “One of our members had a stroke and we did a 24-hour Erg session where we raised about £5,500 for the Stroke Association.

“We’ve just done another smaller one for a mental health charity, and the juniors organised that themselves and they basically rowed continuously for 24 hours, which was quite impressive to see. That was about a month or so ago.”

A celebration of rowing! The Great British Rowing Weekend launches in 2024. From 7-8 September 2024, clubs around the country will be opening their doors to their local communities, giving everyone in the UK a chance to try rowing – for more information visit britishrowing.org