News

Posted: July 31, 2016

Glasgow teenager Callum Urquhart helped Great Britain’s junior men’s four win back to back gold medals at the annual Coupe de la Jeunesse event in Poznan, Poland this weekend.

Great Britain has been successful at past Coupe events, considered unofficially as the junior European Championships, but it was beyond the 17-year-old’s high expectations to win both races this weekend.

In Saturday’s final his crew beat Switzerland by over six seconds whilst today they held off Italy by a similar margin.

“It was pretty overwhelming on the first day having never been to a competition with so many countries and crews competing,” said Callum, a member of Glasgow Schools Rowing Club.

“But after the first heat which we won by a good margin I felt more confident.  So it was a lot easier to go into the final with that confidence.

“It was a great feeling to win two golds and I didn’t expect that at all.”

Callum was competing in the four along with Henry Jones (Westminster School BC), Marcus Jonas (Tideway Scullers School) and Alexander Wythe (Winchester College BC).  

Until a fortnight ago the combination had never rowed together but their preparation had been so intense that, in the second of the two events at Poznan, they even managed to beat boats with fresh crew members.

“Some countries had changed their crews for the second day’s racing so we had to change our mindsets,” he continued.

“We train for this sort of thing and in most regattas back in the UK we will do three or four races a day. But it was still really exhausting racing at such a high level of competition.

“It paid off and we did very well.”

This weekend was the perfect end to Callum’s under 18 career.  The next time he competes will be at the under 23 category, a change which coincides with his starting a philosophy degree at the University of Edinburgh in September.

In 2015 the University of Edinburgh was recognised as Scotland’s first High Performance Programme for the GB Rowing Team and is fast becoming the UK’s go-to rowing university.

Scottish Rowing’s investment in professional coaching and support services, in partnership with the university sector and the sportscotland institute of sport, has been a real success story in Scotland and has put rowing on the sporting map.

Earlier this month Edinburgh became the first Scottish university to win a Henley final in the regatta's 177 year history.

“That’s the end of our season as a crew and a really good end to my under 18 career,” added Callum.

“Now I’m very excited about going to Edinburgh.  The season has just ended but I just really want to get going again. I can’t wait to get started.”