Press release from Terry McNeill, of Scottish Rowing.
ABERDEEN ROWING PRESS RELEASE
Release dated: 28/6/98
A crew calling themselves "Blind Ambition" and comprising four visually handicapped members of Grampian Society for the Blind made sure there was plenty for their sighted competitors to watch when they came 3rd out of the 30-plus crews who entered this year's Aberdeen Inter-Company Regatta. The four rowed on exactly the same terms as every other competitor.
Amanda Burt, Charles Clark, Ali Burt and John Gibson took up rowing with the other crews less than 6 weeks ago; their coach David Hunter - a skills instructor with the social work department and an experienced coach in novice rowing - was full of admiration for his crew.
"I never told them whether the crews they were racing were ahead or behind: they just concentrated on their own rowing and, in the final, they rowed right past another crew who were actually well ahead of us at the half way mark."It was a crew from the ETAP oilfield project (Shell/BP/Brown & Root) - who took their crew-name of 'Effortless Thrusting and Pulling' from their project's initials - which ultimately won the event over the 2nd placed 'Dee-Fish-Ant' entry from Oryx Petroleum.
But all the competitors were happy to join the applause for the crew who, without doubt, beat the biggest challenge in this year's inter-company regatta - 'Blind Ambition', from the Grampian Society for the Blind.