International Call Up for Joe

Joe Nisbett of Brixham Gig Club has been selected to row in the Great Britain team at the 2018 Atlantic Challenge. The event is held every 2 years with the 2018 event taking place in County Antrim. Joe has been selected as part of a squad of 15 split evenly across the countries of Great Britain and genders, this means Joe is one of only 2 English males selected from the huge list of applicants.

The boat Integrite is a 10 oared 3 sailed Bantry Bay Gig built by John Kerr in 1992, it is slightly different to what Joe is used to but we at Brixham know exactly what he is capable of and we think he will have no problem in adapting to the boats and the style.

I took a few minutes to ask the man himself some questions:

How did you come to learn about the Atlantic Challenge?

Dave mentioned an article on GigRower that described the challenge and the application procedure

For those of us who want to follow your progress when is the event?

The event takes place in July 2018 with a training camp immediately before and a training camp some time this Summer, which hopefully won’t clash with the U16s championships!

What do you think the Atlantic Challenge is all about?

Teamwork and friendly international competition for young people aged 16-25 who share a love of the sea. The videos online of previous events show a great atmosphere.

How does it feel to be selected to represent your country?

Pretty good, I’d hoped to get selected, but didn’t really expect to at my first attempt, it hasn’t properly sunk in yet

Will you be doing anything different in training to get ready for 2018?

I will be getting monthly training targets, but of course I’ve got rowing and circuits over the winter too

What gives you the edge over the other potential crew members?

I seriously don’t know, but I’m glad the organisers saw something in my application and interview.

We at Brixham Gig Club are very proud to be able to call you one of our own what made you take up rowing in the first place?

Amy [Plowman] suggested it at a party I went to with my parents early in 2014 and it took off from there

One last question what would you say is your proudest moment in rowing to date?(aside from the selection for this event)

I really loved being part of the U16s victory at Bristol I want to make the most of my last U16 season and hope we can win more races together

Thank you Joe best of luck with the training if there is any way that the club can help be sure to let us know.

The club would like to congratulate Joe once more on his selection and we are sure that the whole of Brixham wishes him the best.

In the meantime Joe will continue to represent Brixham in both the Under 16 crew and the Mens C crew this season.