Filippi is new title sponsor for the Filippi Spirit Award

For immediate release
Varese, 18 April 2016

World Rowing and Filippi are pleased to announce the newly-named Filippi Spirit Award. 

Formerly known as the Parmigiani Spirit Award, Filippi will become the main sponsor in 2016, marking the fourth year of the Award.

Filippi has been involved in the award since its inception because the winner’s university rowing club would receive a custom-built, top-of-the-range Filippi eight racing shell. The boat recognises the winner’s involvement in the club and helps the club to develop more young rowers in the future. It was a natural progression for the boatbuilding company to step up to become the main sponsor.

The Filippi Spirit Award encapsulates rowing’s core values – teamwork, fairness, natural, inclusive and enduring – and recognises the achievements of our next generation of rowers. It is open to university rowers worldwide and will be awarded to the rower that best demonstrates the core values of rowing in his/her social, academic and sporting life.

“We created this Award to give special recognition to university rowers who are going above and beyond in their rowing, academic and social lives. These individuals deserve to be recognised for these outstanding efforts,” says FISA President Jean-Christophe Rolland. “The addition of a Filippi eight to any university boathouse provides an unparalleled opportunity to develop more university rowers and promote the sport. Filippi has been a great supporter of university rowing and this Award and we are proud to that Filippi have stepped up to become the main sponsor.” 

“We are proud to have been a part of this Award since the beginning. We recognise the value of university rowing and therefore did not hesitate to become the title sponsor of this Award. At Filippi we believe in supporting the development of rowing at all levels. The university rowers are an important community as they work to develop not only the athlete, but also the person,” David Filippi.

A call for nominations for the 2016 Filippi Spirit Award will be in September 2016. To qualify, applicants must have attended university in the 2016 year. Nominations will close in November with the winner being announced in early 2017.

Previous winners:
(Parmigiani Spirit Award 2013 – 2015) 

2013 James Cook
British student-athlete studying mechanical engineering at the University College of London, GBR.

2014 Franz Gravenhourst
German national team rower and PhD student at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, SUI.

2015 Kirsten Van Fossen
American PhD student studying engineering at the University of Cambridge, GBR.

For more information go to www.worldrowing.com/athletes

Filippi Lido S.R.L. (also known as Filippi Boats) is a rowing racing boat manufacturer based in Donorotico, Italy. Since 1980 Filippi has produced top Olympic-class rowing boats. They are renowned for design, top-quality materials and state-of-the-art technology combined with passion and core values that underpin their work.

For more information, visit their website here: http://www.filippiboats.com
or Facebook @Filippiboats