On April 28, the International Rowing Federation (FISA), Parmigiani Fleurier and Swiss University Sports held a ceremony at the boathouse of Belvoir Ruderclub Zurich. The president of Swiss University Sports Mr Andreas Csonka was able to honour the Swiss University rowing team who won ten medals last year at the European Universities Games in Rotterdam. Thanks to this unprecedented run to the podium, the team of 35 students and 4 coaches also won the challenge for the best country in rowing and helped the whole Swiss team to be finally ranked third at the Games of the European University Sports Association (EUSA).



This ceremony was combined with another celebration, the Parmigiani Spirit Award. Last October, Mr Franz Gravenhorst won the Parmigiani Fleurier and FISA Spirit Award 2014 for his excellence in sports and studies as well as his social values and engagement to help other students to row. Mr Marc Gaudreault, CEO of Parmigiani and Mr Gravenhorst christened a new Filippi eight which was given to the students of Zurich, followed by the first row of the women’s university eight – the crew that won bronze at the EUSA Games 2014.



The new eight will be stored, used and maintained by Belvoir Rowing Cluband will foster its student rowing programmes. Thanks to successful recruitment in the universities of Zurich, Belvoir Rowing Club saw a massive increase of athletes in the last years, with five eight's crews sharing three boats. The new boat comes just in time for this year’s racing season.



The Parmigiani Spirit Award is an annual award, open to university rowers worldwide who demonstrated the core values of rowing in his/her social, academic and sporting life and, through those values, also enabled or inspired exceptional success in other people’s lives – for example in education, business, sports or charity. The nomination process for the 2015 Parmigiani Spirit Award is open until June 22.