International Success for Leicester Rower

Leicester Rowing Club's Olly Dix came away from his international debut at the Coupe de le Jeunesse in Hungary at the weekend with a hard-fought bronze medal in the single sculls.

Competing against scullers from across Europe, Dix pushed hard all the way down the course to stick with the pack and then pull away from the 4^th placed French sculler in the second half of the course. A flat out sprint for the line saw him closing fast on the Belgian in second place as the line approached.

Coach Howard Marsh was understandably delighted with the result, which was the culmination of two years of hard training and an intensive selection process which finished only 3 weeks prior to the event. He praised Dix, who had felt unwell earlier in the day, for putting in such a composed and mature performance in the face of adversity and against far more experienced athletes.

Olly, who is sponsored by SportsAid and Leicestershire and Rutland Sport, was understandably delighted with his medal, afterwards tweeting 'Best way to finish an awesome weekend.' Leicester Rowing Club President, Liz Pulford added, 'I am absolutely delighted for Olly and his coach, Howard Marsh. They have worked exceptionally hard for this and getting the medal is a very fitting reward for their efforts. I'm pleased that I was able to get out to Hungary to witness this fantastic performance first hand; I am so proud of them both and I'm sure this is the first of many Team GB selections for Olly, he has a very bright future in our sport.'

Dix was competing as part of the National Lottery funded GB team that took second place on the overall medal table, with four gold, seven silver and five bronze medals over the two-day event.