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Larkin Brown Wins National Competition

GPS rower has experience of a lifetime.
Congrats to GPS junior Larkin Brown on winning the US Rowing Youth Regional Challenge, competing during the 2017 World Rowing Championships with world class athletes and the best youth rowers in the country! Brown’s team, the Southeast Youth Women’s 8+, defeated all the other regions from across the nation.  

“It was really cool to race at a higher level,” Brown says of the experience. “It gave me a newfound confidence in my abilities.” Brown was placed on a team with girls she had never rowed with before, in the sixth seat in the boat, where she usually doesn’t sit. “We had only two days to practice, and I’m so glad I went. This experience made me realize I definitely want to keep rowing competitively.”

In preparation for the 2017 World Rowing Championships, the first-ever US Rowing Youth Regional Challenge was held last weekend, featuring 312 of the top Under-19 rowers from across the country, racing in eights and quadruple sculls.

“The Youth Regional Challenge serves two purposes,” stated Steve Hargis, USRowing’s U19 Development CoachFirst. “For the first time ever, we (brought) together each region’s top developmental junior athletes, coxswains, and their coaches for friendly, yet high-level competition. Second, this event (provided) a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to see a World Championship up close and personal from the water side, not just sitting in the stands!”

More than 900 athletes applied, representing the six USRowing regions in four boat classes. GPS’s Larkin Brown was one of those selected and the only Bruiser to compete.

“Larkin is one of the best athletes I have ever coached,” says GPS Head Rowing Coach David Hall. “She is coachable and has a desire to succeed that is evident every day at practice, working to push her limits each training session to be sure progress is made; she continues to grow as an athlete. Her determination has given her great opportunities and I look forward to watching her compete with world-class athletes in the near and distant future.”
 
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