British Rowing Awards: School or Junior Crew of the Year winner

Congratulations to Tees RC – winner of our National Junior Crew of the Year Award!

The British Rowing School or Junior Crew of the Year award is for school and junior club crews with outstanding achievements in the 2019 calendar year, or over the course of the 2018/19 season. Crews can be nominated for their achievements over a successful year of racing, as well as for notable achievements of other kinds, and this year there are five worthy junior crews who are our nominees, all listed below.

But there can only be one winner and our Awards Panel have selected the junior men’s double from Tees RC as worthy recipients of our overall National Junior Crew of the Year Award.

We’ve included some highlights from their citation below:

Success comes in many guises and Callum and Maziyar have each overcome a different challenge in order to form a competitive crew who have won several heads and regattas and competed at national events.

Maziyar arrived in the UK in 2017 as an asylum seeker from Iran. On arriving in Stockton, he was reunited with his Mum, after being separated for four months, and took up rowing – last enjoyed back in Iran.

Callum, who is a multi-sensory learner, has worked incredibly hard to develop strategies to control his social anxieties, which have led him to start coaching. He has been voted in as Junior Captain of Tees RC.

Both Callum and Maziyar have become talented athletes and coaches, generously giving their time to support the younger club members.

Our other four nominees are:

Eton College first eight crew (Thames Region)

The Eton first eight won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta against the odds in 2019.

The crew embodied the ethnic diversity of the school, and while some were from the U15 and U16 A crews, two had shown remarkable tenacity in working their way up from the U15 D crew.

At Henley, the Eton eight upset Radley on the Friday and on the following day, led Shiplake, in the fastest full course time ever recorded by an Eton crew. In the final, they overcame Scotch College, a crew which had not been beaten by a school crew in two years.

Five boys from the crew went on to GB representation, with three winning a bronze medal in the eight at the Junior Worlds in Tokyo.

Hereford RC junior men’s four crew (West Midlands Region)

This J16 crew have revitalised junior rowing at Hereford Rowing Club. From a small club with just a few junior members, Henry Fraser, Alfie Wynter, Ollie Gittins, Dan Dutson-Smith and cox Maisie Wynter, under their outstanding coach Nigel Fraser, have put Hereford rowing back on the map, inspiring a whole new junior section who want to follow their successes.

They have medalled at National Schools Regatta, British Rowing Junior Championship, Inter-Regionals, Welsh Indoors and never fail to bring home a pot from local regattas in both sweep and sculling.

For a small club with seasoned boats and limited resources they have become inspirational ambassadors for Hereford Rowing Club.

Kingston RC junior women’s four crew (Thames Region)

This junior women’s four have been at the forefront of the domestic rowing scene for three seasons. They have won countless medals and trophies. This season, at National Schools they won gold in the girls’ coxed four on Saturday in record time and then went on to win gold in the junior women’s pair, also with a record time.

Within these five girls is the fastest junior women’s pair all season. They won the Feb GB trials by 40 seconds, and the April GB trials by eight seconds. Both girls then went on to row for GB in the junior women’s four at the Junior Worlds.

Trentham Boat Club junior women’s quad (North West Region)

The girls have worked tirelessly to achieve the following results in J15 coxed quad national races in 2019:

March 2019 – Junior Sculling Head – J15 4x+ – silver
May 2019 – National Schools Regatta – J15 4x+ – gold
July 2019 – British Rowing Junior Championships – J15x+ – gold

Balancing the intense training and schoolwork has been a tough challenge, but with a solid time management system and commitment to each other, and the team, it has been achievable.

They have a strong belief which has been developed – anything is possible if you set your mind to it!

Thanks to the British Rowing Awards Panel School/Junior Crew of the Year – John Hinnigan, Sophie Hosking, Pete Milhofer (Treasurer, Reading BC) and Diane Graham (President, Walbrook RC) for their time selecting our Junior Crew of the Year winner.

We are celebrating the winners of the British Rowing Awards 2020 all the way up until 31 December so please keep and eye out for other winners #BRAwards2020