Eton College eight shortlisted for British Rowing’s crew of the year award

Eton College's first eight have been shortlisted for the junior/school crew of the year at the British Rowing awards.

The shortlist was announced this week and the winning crews and clubs will be revealed during a live webcast on January 20.

The nominees have been shortlisted in a range of categories, from club of the year to COVID hero, and the Eton College first eight are in competition with Hereford's Cathedral School Boat Club J16 Quad, Hinksey Sculling School's Britannia Four, Shiplake College's JW Quad 2021, Surbiton High School, HRR 8+ and Tideway Scullers' School Fawley Quad.

Eton College did wonderfully well at this summer's National Schools Regatta (NSR) with the first eight, second eight and third eight teams all winning gold medals in their events.

Reflecting on that success, Dr Guy Pooley, head of rowing at the College, said: “This clean sweep at the top end of NSR has been done before, but only by Eton we think. Not many schools have as many boys rowing as we do and none have their own Olympic standard rowing lake, so we do have significant advantages. However, our rowers and their coaches still have to do the hard work to make the crews reach their potential.”

This year's awards reflect a huge number of success stories from right across the country. They will be announced alongside the winners of British Rowing's Medal of Honour, Medal of Merits, Beryl Crockford Award and National Safety Awards.

All winners will be visited by a British Rowing official to receive their award in person, following the webcast.