ROWING
Cumbrian Brian Armstrong has been honoured with a lifetime achievement award for services to rowing by Sports Coach UK.
He received his award from fellow Leander member Chris Baillieu, the recently appointed chairman of the organisation, at a glittering ceremony held at Old Billingsgate in London.
He is pictured, right, alongside with tv personality John Inverdale.
Armstrong started his rowing career at the age of 16 at Talkin Tarn Rowing Club, near his home town of Brampton.
As his career as a chartered surveyor progressed he subsequently became a member of four more clubs, including his university at Newcastle, and progressed to coaching — as well as becoming captain — at all five!
His career moved up a notch when he was apprenticed to Bob Janousek, one of the architects of Britain’s resurgence in international rowing in the early 1970’s and he later became coach to the GB men’s lightweight team 1983/84.
Armstrong then moved into team management, taking charge of Britain’s increasingly successful rowers at 12 world championships and three Olympic Games (1988/1996).
After his retirement he started coaching at Leander in 1997 and has since guided many raw recruits to greatness, including many Henley wins.
Leander cox Chrisy Fox was one of many to pay tribute to Armstrong’s coaching ability. Fox said: “Brian’s concept is that 90 per cent of success is in your head — it became our mantra, including the three Cs of our campaign: commitment, courage and caring.
“We needed to commit every stroke, have the courage to push ourselves harder than we ever had and care for ourselves and for the crew members around us,” she said.
