East Devon rowing ace Edward Fuller travelled up to London to compete in the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships held at the Olympic venue in Stratford.
Edward, who hails from Gittisham in East Devon and rows for Exeter Rowing Club, competed in the Year 12 2k ergo event gaining a silver medal with a time of six minutes and 23.4 seconds, narrowly missing gold by 0.8 seconds!
His personal best of six mins 20 seconds would have made him the quickest boy rower at the event.
Edward has been rowing since he was 12-years-old as all other sports were off limits to him as he has the genetic blood clotting condition haemophilia.
Since he started rowing he has achieved considerable success both individually rowing a single scull and with his rowing partner Oliver Wickham rowing a double scull.
Ed and Ollie have been British Junior Champions in their double scull three years running and also last year won the prestigious National Schools Regatta double scull class for 16-year olds against the best competition in the country.
They now hold the course record at The Olympic Lake Dorney Eton for this class rowing as they raced through the 2k course in a time of six minutes and 56 seconds.
Last February Edward attended the Junior 16 GB rowing trials at Boston in Lincolnshire where the 5k course had to be rowed as quickly as possible to gain recognition by the GB coaches for future selection.
Edward competed the course 30 seconds quicker than the second-placed rower and the following day, rowing the double, Ed and Ollie were again the quickest down the course. Over 150 boys compete at these trials.
Over the years Ed has amassed many local regatta medals and National Regatta medals. He trains relentlessly both on the water at Exeter, both ergo and gym work.
He is on GB’s Performance Talent programme and is also studying for a Diploma in Sporting Excellence with his GB coaches. He also studies three other A levels and manages to balance his time for both rowing and academic studies.
Last November, Edward was invited to Early ID trials at Boston Linc where he was selected to attend the GB rowing camp Northern Spain for a week before Christmas.
Since then the weather hasn’t been kind to rowers and two training camps at Caversham and trials at Boston have been cancelled.
Edward aspires to be selected for the Junior World Championships this August in Slovenia but wishes to row well past junior level and onwards.
He has limited mobility in his ankles, due to historic haemophilia bleeds, and is also registered with British Rowing as a PR3 athlete.
This would allow him to compete at the Paralympics if he chooses to go down that particular route.
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