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Meet the Winning Students 100 rowing stars ID’d for success

Winning Students 100 in partnership with Scottish Rowing has devised a special project called Talent ID which allows students who have come to rowing later in life to rapidly develop their skills and progress through the sport.

Heriot-Watt University’s Nathaniel Fishburn, the University of St. Andrew’s Sophia Issberner and the University of Edinburgh’s Katie Robertson were each selected for the programme, showing specific characteristics that suggest they have the potential to compete at the very top echelons of the sport.

Both Nathaniel and Sophia took up rowing when they joined University and found it clicked for them, while Katie was a competitive swimmer who has made the leap to a new sport, bringing her experience and winning mentality with her.

Lee Boucher, Chief Executive Officer of Scottish Rowing, said: “Scottish Rowing has enjoyed a long and successful partnership with the Winning Students programme, and I’m thrilled to see this new initiative harnessing the sport’s capacity to nurture athletic potential alongside academic excellence. With up to 20 percent of the Great Britain Olympic Rowing Team discovering rowing for the first time at university, we know that this represents a strong and unique pathway. We’re grateful to Winning Students 100, sportscotland and the Scottish Funding Council for making opportunities like this possible.”

Winning Students 100 is Scotland’s national sports scholarship programme – empowering the country’s most talented student athletes to achieve excellence in both sport and education.

Funded by sportscotland and the Scottish Funding Council, the scheme supports athletes 110 students across 32 sports and 19 institutions.

Helping student athletes balance their studies with high performance training and competition, Winning Students 100 provides athletes with financial grants and works with colleges and universities to offer additional support such as academic flexibility.