WEST HILL resident Marcus Bowyer flew out to the Czech Republic on Monday to row for the Great Britain Junior team in the Junior World Championships.

Bowyer celebrated his 17th birthday on the day he flew with the rest of the squad and he is the first ever junior from the Exeter Rowing Club to be selected for the Great Britain Junior Rowing Team, following the recent final selection trials in Nottingham.

Bowyer beat off competition from 18 other junior trialists, to be one of four scullers selected for the team to take part in the Junior World Rowing Championships in the Czech Republic, in August.

It is a remarkable achievement for the teenager, who only began rowing seriously two years ago. Having built a reputation this season for his record breaking performances on the indoor rower, Bowyer had yet to quite match this on the water, and went into the trial as the eighth ranked single sculler. However, the weeks of hard training since the last set of trials paid off as Marcus moved up to second in the singles ranking, following the first set of testing. This was followed by three days of further intensive racing on the water in double and quadruple sculls. Marcus continued to raise his performance in all boat types, and was ultimately selected to stroke the GB quadruple scull, which also includes juniors from Maidenhead, Westminster and Walton.

Early testing of the quad’s speed suggests they will be contenders for a medal which, if achieved, would be the first junior sculling medal won by GB Rowing since 2001.