GB chief’s visit to Boat Club is just oarsome!
ROWING
THE driving force behind GB Rowing’s success over the last 20 years visited Tyneside to celebrate an outstanding year for Newcastle University Boat Club.
Sir David Tanner, Performance Director of GB Rowing, was at the campus to discuss how the GB Rowing team will be preparing for the next Olympic cycle.
At an event at the Sports Centre Tanner, who oversaw GB’s Olympic success from Atlanta 1996 to Rio 2016, presented certificates to Newcastle University rowers.
He said: “Newcastle University has a great rowing programme.
“The university is very supportive of rowing and it has the aspiration to give young people the opportunity to become thebest.
“How rowers apply themselves to this opportunity makes a difference.
“A lot of the success here is down to head coach Angelo Savarino.
“He is a good leader and a very good coach. He has the vision, which has allowed the club to step up.
“When the university brings support and encouragement to rowers, this helps the coaching and support staff build a programme to provide the platform to be the best.
“To help build on this, we will continue to support and exchange best practice to help develop the high-performance programme.”
Savarino told the rowers: “You need to realise how special you are and what you can do, which in turn will help develop the sport.
“What you are learning as a rower is how to push yourself to the limits, which prepares you for what you are doing in life and in sport.
“I am very pleased this year we had a strong contingent of rowers who represented the university at the World Under-23 and World University (FISU) Championships.”
The NUBC rowers recognised with certificates for their achievements were Oliver Varley (World Under-23s – lightweight men’s four, gold 2016), Emily Ford (World Under-23s – women’s eight, silver 2016), Sasha Adwani (World Under-23s Women’s eight, silver 2016), James Rudkin (World Under-23s – men’s four, silver 2016), Oliver Knight, (FISU – men’s four, gold 2016), Tom Ford (FISU, men’s four, gold 2016), Tim Clark (FISU – men’s eight, gold 2016), James Robson (FISU finalist) and Alex Haynes (FISU finalist).