Help Will get to the Junior World Rowing Championships 2018

Hi, Im Will Thompson. I am currently in year 13 at Hamilton Boys High School. I have recently been selected into the NZ Junior Rowing Team to compete at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic in August. I will be competing in the Junior mens coxless Quad event.

When I was 4 years old, my father was a rowing coach and I would always beg him to take me out in the coach boat before and after kindergarten/school every day. Many people would slowly start to get bored of watching rowers train continuously for 20km. But I was the odd one out who enjoyed it the more I watched it. Many of you would have seen a little boy running around the regattas doing little chores, that was me. By the age of 12 I went for my first row in a single. It was great, I didn't understand the term "don't let go of your oar handles when the boat is unbalanced" and ended up capsizing within a few strokes. with a few more sessions in the single, I decided to join the Hamilton Boys High School Rowing program.

from here, I went on to compete. My first Maadi Cup was in Twizel in 2016. With great support Myself and fellow team member Luke Taylor won 5 National Titles together. 4 of these involved 2-6 other crew members as well.

Since then, I have competed in 2 more National secondary school Rowing championships and have gained a lot of success and experience from them. This Success would not have occurred without the support of the Hamilton Boys high school, family, friends and in particular Glenn Ross, Don Baron, Bruce Holden and my parents.

After the most recent Maadi Cup, I was lucky enough to be named as a trialist for the NZ Rowing Junior team and just recently I was named in the team in the NZ Junior Coxless quad.

This has been a huge goal of mine since I was a little boy and I am excited for the tough times ahead.

On the 3rd of June we gather back as a team To train at Lake Karapiro, Cambridge until the 27th July for the World Junior championships. We then fly out On the 27th July to Racice, Czech Republic where will be adjust to the conditions before competing at the Junior World Rowing Championships from the 8th - 12th August 2018.

With being named in this term comes huge costs to cover. These costs include accomodation, flights, training and racing costs, transport etc. I am kindly asking for donations to be made to cover all these costs and help my dream come true of competing for NZ in 2018.