Two GB Rowing Team crews named “World Crew of the Year”
The GB Rowing Team has collected two “World Crew of the Year” accolades at the World Rowing annual dinner staged tonight.
Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger, world champions in the double scull and unbeaten in 2010, were named World Rowing Female Crew of the Year. The duo, coached by Paul Thompson, were described by the sport’s world governing body as the “perfect combination” and were praised for winning their world title in “dominating style” at the World Championships in New Zealand last November.
Meanwhile, single sculler Tom Aggar, the reigning Paralympic and World Champion, was named World Adaptive Crew of the Year for the second successive year.
The world governing body said that Aggar, coached by Tom Dyson, had “set the standard in adaptive rowing” and paid tribute to his continuing unbeaten run at international level during which he has twice lowered his own World Best Time.
GB Rowing Team Performance Direct
or said: “These Awards are well-deserved and we are very proud of Anna, Katherine and Tom who worked so hard to achieve such outstanding results in 2010. They are exceptional role models for our sport”.
As well as being unbeaten in the double scull Grainger and Watkins also doubled up at each of the 2010 season’s world cup winning three golds in the double scull and two golds and a silver in the quadruple scull.
Grainger said: “It was a fantastic summer last year for both Anna and I and now winning this is just the perfect end to that season. It’s an incredible honour to be chosen for this award by FISA especially considering all the fantastic racing performances there were in 2010. Paul Thompson, our coach, Anna and I put in a lot of hard work to get the results we did but it’s been worth every second”.
