Rower recognised for her contribution to the sport

A WOMAN from Henley has been awarded a medal of honour by British Rowing.

Guin Batten, 58, was honoured for her outstanding contributions to the sport at the governing body’s annual awards.

The former Olympic silver medal-winning sculler received an email from British Rowing informing her of the award which she described as “really unexpected”.

“It’s a real honour and I feel quite humbled to receive the medal,” Ms Batten said. “I’ve had a lot of people saying ‘Well done’ to me.

“All I can say is thank you to all of the amazing people around me who have been doing a lot of the same stuff as me.”

Ms Batten started rowing when she was at university in the Nineties but was told that she was too small to be an international rower.

In 1993 she entered the first open event at Henley Royal Regatta and made her Olympic debut in Atlanta in 1996 in the single sculls event.

Then, four years later, in Sydney, she competed in the quadruple sculls event with her sister Miriam Luke (née Batten), Gillian Lindsay and Katherine Grainger.

The silver they won was Great Britain’s first ever Olympic rowing medal for women.

Ms Batten said: “We did that and that broke the glass ceiling because Great Britain had never won a medal, they’d only ever come fifth in the Olympics prior to that. It wasn’t until 2012 that the guys went out and won their first gold medal. We were part of that journey, part of the standing on shoulders of those that had gone before us and helping those that would come up after us. We were standing on the shoulders of giants.”

In 2003 she moved into sports management, working with Sport England, the Youth Sport Trust and British Canoeing in sport and talent development, specialising in strategy, influencing change and designing innovative products and programmes.

Also that year, she rowed across the English Channel in a record time of three hours and 14 minutes in single sculls.

Then in 2004, Ms Batten set up the British Athletes Commission in 2004, now the British Elite Athletes Association, which aims to represent the interests of British athletes to decision-makers in sports. She also became the chair of the Coastal Rowing Commission in 2011, which focuses on promoting and organising coastal rowing events across the UK.

From 2008 to 2022 Ms Batten was also chair of the Women’s Eights Head of the River Race.

Ms Batten said: “The Women’s Eights Head started in 1927, one year after the men’s. There’s a real heritage about that and it’s probably the largest women’s row race in the world. I’m really proud to have been at the helm of that for the years that I was.”

Now Ms Batten serves as chair of World Rowing’s Coastal Rowing Commission and has helped to design beach sprint rowing programmes for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.

She said: “It’s a real privilege and an honour to be in the right place at the right time and to design a format that makes it into the Olympics. It will be really, really exciting.”

Ms Batten was also the first woman in 175 years to be part of the committee of management of the royal regatta and is also an umpire at the six-day event.

She said that it works closely with the organisers of the Henley Women’s Regatta. “It’s a real advantage,” she said. “The men don’t have the advantage of having a regatta on two weeks before Henley royal.

“I think the women’s does a really good job at helping female athletes and not all who race at the women’s regatta have that opportunity to race at the royal so, as a regatta in its own right, it’s amazing.”

She added: “It’s a lifetime of commitment to sport. If you were to say, why do I give back? I give back because the sport gave me so much.”

Ms Batten is also the current deputy chief executive of Volleyball England, a role she began in 2022.

Meanwhile, Henley Women’s Regatta, which was shortlisted for the Environmental Sustainability Award by British Rowing, lost out to Fulham Reach Boat Club.

At last year’s event, the regatta ran a sustainability hub and competitors were offered free boat cleaning products. Solar panels were also used, along with a plan for efficient recycling and robust waste management.

Fulham Reach was praised for its “blueprint for sustainable sport” and for sharing its knowledge, facilities, contacts and expertise with other schools and clubs while consulting with a wide variety of stakeholders, particularly the local community.