Tomasz and Anna: How a chance encounter in a garage led to the World Rowing Masters Regatta

Fergus Mainland sits down with Tomasz Kremer to hear all about his return to rowing, becoming British Champion, and training for a trip to Banyoles next week

Every now and then, life serves up a moment of serendipity. For some, it could be a jostling for a pair of black gloves in Bloomingdales or writing a phone number on a bank note. For Tomasz Kremer and Anna Nicol (née Rutkowska), their serendipitous encounter was at Tomasz’s car garage, which has led to their rowing rejuvenations.

Having learned to row at KKS Gedania Gdansk in Poland when he was 14, Tomasz drifted away from the sport as so many frequently do. A change in schools, emigration, and family life meant it was more than twenty years between his last strokes as a junior and his first strokes at his new club in the UK.

While Anna and Tomasz may not have been friends, he’s certain that she knew of the girls at his club and that he knew of the boys at her club, what with the two clubs being 150 miles from each other. Their serendipitous encounter saw Anna arrive at Tomasz’s garage, and after seeing something rowing-related on his laptop, the seed of their return to rowing was planted.

After having reactive arthritis last year, Tomasz’s son was the one who suggested investing in a rowing machine to help with recovery and as an easy way to keep moving. One thing led to another, and the two of them were googling their local rowing clubs, and Swindon RC popped up.

“We went down and I hadn’t been on the water for 25 years or something like that, but it was like riding a bike and it all comes back to you,” explained Tomasz.

“The rowing is brilliant because it’s a full-body workout, but I don’t need to tell you that. I chose rowing because of my joint problem. I can’t really run, so rowing is definitely the one after coming back.

“I started training, and at first, I thought it would be nice to get back into shape, and I found that exercise helped a lot with my disease. At this point, I contacted Anna and asked if she would be interested in coming down for some training.

“She said maybe, but in the end, we went for one session together. That became a second one, and then a third session, and we were really starting to enjoy it. We wondered whether or not we should enter a competition, but having not been in a boat for 20 years, 100m of racing is a long way to begin with!”

Anna brought a wealth of experience to their combination. As a junior, she raced twice at the World Rowing Junior Championships. In 1997, she was seventh in the Women’s Double Scull when the Championships were in Hazewinkel, Belgium. Fast forward 12 months, and she travelled to Linz, Austria, as part of the Quadruple scull that was sixth. Anna completed her international racing in 1999 at the Nations Cup in Hamburg, Germany.

It was through this experience and her experience with her old coach that she was able to play her ace card and, over recent months, tap in to the experience of Wojciech Jankowski, Olympic bronze medallist in the Coxed Four. The theme of serendipity continues to run through Anna and Tomasz’s story as they will race the World Rowing Masters Regatta on the same Banyoles course that Jankowski won his Olympic medal on in 1992.

Through Jankowski’s guidance with training plans as well as some consulting of online coaches, the duo set their sights on this year’s British Rowing Masters Championships.

Tomasz said, “In the meantime, we decided we needed a new boat, so I invested in a shell that we got from China Nottingham. As everyone will know, it can be a bit windy in Nottingham, so it was a great test for us about surviving, but also how to deal with the wind, which was quite difficult. The first day, we had two starts. The first saw us qualify for the final, and in that race, we ended up with a fourth-place finish in the Mixed C Double Sculls, which wasn’t bad after all those years!

“Because we didn’t have any British Rowing points, having just returned to the sport, we were able to race in the Band 2 Mixed 36+ Double Sculls event, and we won that! We came back from Nottingham and decided we needed a proper racing boat, so I ordered a new Filippi, and we started working really hard over the past three months. We are training eight times a week, and our times are looking very promising for the World Masters Regatta, and that’s where we are, that’s the story.”

Tomasz and Anna are part of a massive contingent of British Clubs making the trip to Banyoles next week. 677 athletes representing 102 clubs will take part in the second largest World Rowing Masters Regatta ever staged. While Tomasz and Anna are Swindon RC’s only representatives, they will be hoping that all of their training will stand them in good stead as they take on the rest of the world. Between the two of them, they will race in nine events, and that’s before the Mixed Events. The final day of the regatta, 14 September, will once again be dedicated to mixed racing. Crews can still be entered until 12 September, giving athletes one last chance to join the regatta.

“Our plan is to do what we can in Spain and hopefully come back with a medal! I believe that we can do that. When we come back, our plan is to get more people from the club involved with the regattas. We also have a learn to row programme and a development squad, but we’d like to go a little bit further and get people who want to compete and get them along and share a training plan and help offer that for those who want it,” explained Tomasz.

The World Rowing Masters Regatta takes place in Banyoles Spain 10 -14 September 2025. The startlists for the event are now available on World Rowing’s website.