Ontario Rowers Among 2020 RCA Future Athlete Bursary Recipients
Announcement/ Feb 18

Ontario Rowers Among 2020 RCA Future Athlete Bursary Recipients


Up-and-coming rowers from across Ontario were named as recipients of Rowing Canada Aviron’s Future Athlete Bursary for 2020 by the national governing body on Tuesday.

First introduced in 2014, the Future Athlete Bursary is designed to support up-and-coming Canadian rowers who remain in Canada while completing their post-secondary studies at a recognized Canadian institution. Through a generous donation, this bursary provides financial support to up to six athletes a year who have demonstrated and continue to demonstrate commitment to becoming a high performance athlete in one of RCA’s High Performance programs.

The list of recipients showed that Ontario rowing clubs are continuing to produce elite level talent as Alexis Cronk (Kingston Rowing Club / Victoria Vikes), Steven Harris (Guelph Rowing Club / Brock Badgers) Grace Hutton (Western Rowing Club / Guelph Gryphons), and Liam Simpson (Argonaut Rowing Club / Victoria Vikes) were named as recipients.

“This means very much in allowing me to continue my studies and continue to train towards my goal of making a national team,” said Hutton, who won the U23 women’s single and placed second in the senior women’s double at the 2018 Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. “It will also take away some of the struggle with juggling work and training by helping to pay for my studies in a program that I am passionate about.”

Claire Ellison, who currently rows for the Queen’s Gaels by way of the Halifax Rowing Club and Aida Lissel-DeCorby (Saskatoon Rowing Club / Victoria Vikes) were the remaining recipients of the bursary.