EDUCATION FACILITIES
Rowing prodigy Constantine Louloudis, 18,
explains how he keeps his training at world class
level while studying for his A levels at Eton
“We have great facilities here” enthuses
Constantine Louloudis of his school. “But the top
rowers need to be very organised to juggle the Eton
timetables and systems as we’re made to work very
hard, specially in the run-up to Oxbridge interviews.
Some of our opponents are full-timers training three
times a day. We train far less than some, running
from lessons to lunch then down to the lake then
back to lessons, but at least we mainly get Sundays
off. We had three world junior silver medallists [from
the GB VIII] in the Eton VIII last year, and it helped to
have four experienced guys leading the way.”
Louloudis is a prodigy on several levels. A King’s
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scholar at Eton, and a gifted classicist bound for
Trinity College, Oxford, he is also an outstanding
oarsman who just 22 months after taking up the
sport seriously, won gold as stroke of the GB coxless
4 at the world junior championships in August 09.
While most of his rivals are brawny colossi of
at least 6’6”, Louloudis is a wiry 6’2” and 90kg,
though according to his Eton rowing coach, Alex
Henshilwood, he compensates for his lack of stature
with his focus and intelligence. “He’s very diligent;
explained Henshilwood, “he takes on board what he’s
asked to do and does it effectively, one reason he has
made such extraordinary progress in a short time.”
Louloudis is currently unbeaten in major
competitions including the National Schools
Championships, Henley and the Schools’ Head of
the River. He has slotted seamlessly into the Eton
VIII, widely acknowledged as the greatest schoolboy
crew ever with two other world junior medalists, Max
Monfared and Ed Nainby-Luxmoore. He now aims to
“Word of mouth and the example of other
follow in the blade-marks of Eton’s last Olympic gold
medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent. “If I got selected for
children is the best advertisement but the
the Olympics in 2012, it would mean everything to
me,” he says.
Open Day is no less important”
of the school that impressed us most that will fare under our much-heralded
when we visited, and we still think new headmistress (Felicity Lusk) who
music is what Abingdon does best.” arrives next year, remains to be seen.”
Abingdon is a town school for Rightly or wrongly, less is expected
boys, with an 80/20 split of day of girls schools. Highly reputed
boys to boarders. “You can tell the institutions such as Heathfield and
Abingdon boys when you’re out,” says St Mary’s Ascot are famously basic
another satisfied parent. “They look compared with their boy-counterparts.
and behave in a civilised manner. “After seeing boys schools, visiting
The school takes a holistic approach, girls schools came as quite a shock,”
like a day school with the pastoral says Jenny Hughes, who has a son
care of a boarding school. We like the at Radley and a daughter at Downe E
S
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headmaster’s regimental approach to House. “But our thinking was: if they
O
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B
management and discipline, although can get the academic results they do
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the boys take a different view. They and produce such obviously happy
:
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O
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chose Abingdon for the sport. How girls, in a place like this, they
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WWW.FIRSTELEVENMAGAZINE.CO.UK SPRING 2010 FIRST ELEVEN 37
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