Behind

I, James Fraser-Mackenzie am an athlete who rows as a sport, and hopefully as a profession as soon as possible. I am 18 years old, was born in Zimbabwe and have lived in Zimbabwe for most of my life. I started rowing with my school boat Club, the Saint George’s College Boat Club (Harare) in the first term of 2008 when I was 14 – and loved it! I found my love for long distance running and cycling being transferred to rowing.

Jamie at the Junior World Championship in France, August 2009

At the age of 15 I represented my country in the 2009 South African Senior Championships and later in the year was chosen to represent my country in the 2009 U19 Junior World Rowing Championships held in France. This made me one of the youngest members from Zimbabwe ever to go to this event. I rowed in a double with my partner Steven Cox. Together we came 20^th in the world, and in doing so, broke the Zimbabwe record, came first in Africa and beat some big countries in the sport of rowing, such as the USA, Portugal, and Croatia as well as many others.

Jamie and Stephen at the start of the D Finals at the Junior World Championship, 2009

Last year I again represented my country at the 2010 South African Senior Championships and achieved a bronze medal in the Open Lightweight Men’s Singles event. I was also chosen to go to the U19 World Rowing Junior Championships held in the Czech Republic 2010.

As part of my intense training program, I have done many time trials on indoor rowing machines and am currently ranked  number one in the world for lightweight men over 5000meters.   (May 2010)  http://www.concept2.com/sranking03/rankings.asp

I am committed to training and entirely focused on going to the Olympics in 2012 and would greatly appreciate the opportunity to represent my country at the Olympics. I feel that I would not let my country down. This is a perfect chance as I will have finished my A level exams and be entirely focused on my rowing training schedule.