News

Posted: October 28, 2014

Scottish Rowing has enjoyed a very successful year winning the Home International Regatta in Cork and topping the medal table at the Commonwealth Rowing Championships, so the Scottish Rowing Awards were always going to be hotly contested this year. The Scottish Rowing Awards were presented on Saturday the 25th of October at the Millennium Copthorne Hotel in Aberdeen.

We were delighted to be joined by guests including Councillor George Adam, the Lord Provost of Aberdeen and Mike Whittingham, sportscotland Director of High Performance for a delicious four course meal.

After dinner speeches were led by Scottish Rowing President Mike Morrice. Commonwealth Rowing Champion Lewis McCue toasted a wonderful year for Scottish Rowing. Lewis particularly thanked the Team Manager, coaches and support staff for giving them the platform to go out and perform at the highest level. The reply from Scott Meenagh, British Armed Forces Rowing Team Captain at the recent Invictus Games, was equally inspiring and he spoke of the positive impact rowing has had on his recovery and his pride in representing his country at a sport he has become passionate about.

Then followed by the real business of the night - the Awards Presentations.

Alan Sinclair was the deserving winner of International Rower of the Year, after another year of fine performances with the GB Rowing team culminating in a Silver medal at the World Championships in the Men’s coxed pair behind arguably the world’s best crew, the Kiwi pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.

Senior Rower of the Year was won by Kieran Brown of Edinburgh University Boat Club, a key performer in the successful Scottish Commonwealth Rowing Championships team and Men's Captain of the Scottish HIR Team. Junior Rower of the Year was won by Josh Armstrong from Glasgow Schools RC who has won numerous events this year including the single scull at the GB France match.

The Crew of the Year trophy was presented to the Edinburgh University Men’s 8+, the award was picked up by their coach Colin Williamson of Edinburgh University Boat Club who had to make a return trip to the podium to collect the Coach of the Year Award on a very successful night for Edinburgh University Boat Club.

The Award for Masters Rower of the Year was won by Aillie Ord of Strathclyde Park Rowing Club, who has competed far and wide again this year picking up Gold medals at the Scottish Championships, the British Masters, the European Masters and Henley Masters.

The Volunteer of the Year Award is a chance for Scottish Rowing to acknowledge the outstanding work that is done by people throughout the Scottish Rowing scene. It was won by John McKinney of Castle Semple RC who was recognised for his numerous roles including race controller, umpire, coach and fundraiser.

The final presentation of the night was made by Scottish Rowing President Mike Morrice, who awarded the President's Special Award to Dr Ron Wallace who will be standing down as the Scottish Rowing Medical Officer this year following his retirement from medicine. Ron has served as the Medical Officer for many years and his good humour and bedside manner will be missed by all.