On Saturday the 12th of February 2022, Boston played host to the third water trial of the 2021-2022 season. Strong winds tested the athletes to their limits, making a strong result at this trial even more impressive. The Men’s U23 Single category was an opportunity for any athletes aspiring towards the U23 World Championships in Varese this summer to make their name known. However, due to a large proportion of GB’s top U23 currently away studying at American universities, these results must be taken with a pinch of salt.
Taking the top spot on the timing sheets was Callum Dixon, representing Twickenham RC with an incredibly impressive time which would have put him eighth in the senior category. As a result of this, Callum was invited to attend the senior men’s GB rowing camp in Aviz, despite still being an U23 athlete. Although young, he has represented GB at the 2021 U23 European Championships where he won gold, as well as reaching the final of the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last year.
Second in this event and 20 seconds behind Dixon was Miles Devereux, racing for Oxford Brookes. Miles is an incredibly impressive athlete, winning the Fawley Challenge Cup racing for Leander Club in 2019 as well as winning the B final in the Men’s Quad category at the 2019 Junior World Championships. Last year, he raced in the Men’s Quad at the U23 European Rowing Championships. This upward trajectory certainly seems to have continued for Miles as he strives to go one better and get a seat at worlds for this year.
In third place was Bryn Ellery, ten seconds behind Miles and 30 seconds behind Callum. Similarly to Miles, Bryn also enjoyed a vast amount of success at junior level as a part of the notorious Windsor Boys’ School programme, run by Mark Wilkinson. Bryn won the Fawley challenge Cup back-to-back in 2017 and 2018 and also won consecutive silvers at the Junior World Championships in the quad in those same years. Now racing for Leander Club, Bryn will be looking to use his experience on the international stage this year at the U23 World Championships.
The results of this trial have proved GB to potentially have an incredibly fast and experienced pool of U23 scullers this year. It’ll be exciting to see how these athletes continue to develop throughout this year’s regatta season as we move towards the World Championships in Varese.
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