North East rowers set for River Tyne boat race challenge

May 8 2010 by Neil McKay, The Journal

LOCAL pride will be at stake tomorrow when the North East's two premier rowing universities go head to head in the annual Boat Race between Newcastle and Durham Universities.

Newcastle were the overall winners of the Boat Race title in 2009, loosening Durham’s 12-year hold on the title for the first time.

For Durham University student, Stuart McCluskey, tomorrow’s event will be a serious business.

Stuart, 19, from Wallsend, North Tyneside, will be rowing in Durham’s Senior Men’s boat for the first time.

However, he is no stranger to the demands of the 1.8 km race, having had his first taste of the event as a junior rower when he was on the winning team in the Newcastle Schools race in 2008.

Stuart, who attended Burnside Business and Enterprise College, took up rowing four years ago.

Since then, Stuart has never looked back. He has won gold medals in the UK and Europe.

He was also in the Tyne Rowing Club crew that won the Wyfolds Cup at Henley Regatta in 2008, and holds the record as the youngest person to win the trophy.

Now in his first year studying chemistry at Durham University, after taking a gap year spent working as a rowing coach in a school just south of Brisbane, on Australia’s Gold Cost, Stuart says his first race in the University event will be a world away from the 2008 schools race.

“The schools race was just a fun day out, because I was rowing in a mixed crew of boys and girls who I’d never rowed with before”, he said.

“But on Sunday there will be far more pressure, because the senior men’s race is such a prestigious event for the universities. There is a lot of pride at stake.”