Eight British finalists named for the 2016 World Rowing Awards

Three Paralympic gold medal-winning crews are among the eight British finalists for the 2016 World Rowing Awards

hero__image

Grace Clough, Dan Brown, Pamela Relph, cox Oliver James and James Fox won LTA mixed coxed four gold at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

Great Britain is represented in all but one of the shortlists for the 2016 World Rowing Awards, with no fewer than three finalists for the Distinguished Services to International Rowing award.

British Rowing chairman Annamarie Phelps, coach Mike Spracklen, who has coached elite rowers in Canada and Russia in recent years, and the late Ron Needs, who died aged 90 in April, are three of the six nominations for the award, the winner of which will be announced on 2 December.

Britain also has three finalists in the Para Crew of the Year award, with gold medallists Rachel Morris (single sculls), Grace Clough, Daniel Brown, Pamela Relph, James Fox and Oliver James (mixed coxed four), and Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley (mixed double sculls) up for the award.

Heather Stanning and Helen Glover are finalists in the Women’s Crew of the Year award, up against the USA eight squad, Kimberley Brennan of Australia and Magdalena Fularczyk-Kozlowska and Natalia Madaj of Poland.

And Jürgen Grobler, who coached his seventh consecutive British crew to Olympic gold – a streak dating back to Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in 1992, is a finalist in the Coach of the Year award.

The winners will be honoured at the World Rowing Coaches Conference in Vancouver, Canada, on 28 January 2017.