Campbell Watts (born 10 November 1995) is an Australian

rower Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars (called blades in the United Kingdom) are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are ...

. He is an Australian national champion who participated at the

2018 World Rowing Championships The 2018 World Rowing Championships were the World Rowing Championships held at the regatta course in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The event was held from 9 to 16 September. Events held were men and women's open class, lightweight class, and para-rowing. ...

, where he won a silver medal.

Club and state rowing

Watts was educated at St Joseph's College Hunters Hill where he took up rowing. Watts' senior club rowing has been from the Sydney University Boat Club. He competed for the SUBC at the 2014 and 2015 Intervarsity Championships. In 2014 he rowed in the Sydney University eight and a coxed four and won both titles. In 2015 he competed in the coxed four and the eight and won a universities title in the eight. He debuted at state representative level for New South Wales in the 2015 youth eight which contested and won the Noel Wilkinson Trophy at the Interstate Regatta within the 2015

Australian Rowing Championships The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's pre ...

. At the 2018

he contested the open men's double scull national title with Hamish Playfair of UTS Haberfield and placed second. At the 2019

Australian Championships The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held be ...

he won the open men's double scull national title with his SUBC clubmate

Cameron Girdlestone Cameron Girdlestone is an Australian representative rower. He is a five-time Australian national champion, a medalist at World Championships, a dual Olympian and an Olympic silver and bronze medallist. He raced in the Australian men's quad sc ...

. In 2021 he won an Australian Championship title in the open men's double scull with David Watts.

International representative rowing

Watts made his Australian representative debut in 2017. He rowed in the Australian eight at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan and then in the coxless four at WRC III in Lucerne. For the

2017 World Rowing Championships The 2017 World Rowing Championships were the 47th edition of the World Rowing Championships that were held from 24 September to 1 October 2017 in Sarasota, Florida. Host selection During 2013, Plovdiv and Sarasota, Florida both applied to host ...

in Sarasota, he rowed in the seven seat of the eight which missed the A final and achieved an overall eight place finish. In 2018 he was in contention as Australia's single sculler and rowed that event at two World Rowing Cups in Europe finishing in C finals at both. The Australian quad of David Watts,

Alexander Purnell Alexander (Steve) Purnell (born 30 January 1995) is an Australian rower. He is an Olympic and national champion who has represented at underage and senior world championships. In 2018 in an Australian eight, he won the Grand Challenge Cup at t ...

, Caleb Antill and Luke Letcher also raced at two WRCs and then at for the

Letcher was changed out for Campbell Watts. With Watts in the two seat, that crew placed third in their heat and then in the repechage went out hard and alongside New Zealand they surprised the Lithuanian world champions knocking them out of the final. In the final the Australian quad rowed through most of the field from the 1000m mark and finished in second place to Italy for a silver world championship medal. On the back of his 2019 Australian national championship win in the double scull he was selected with Hamish Playfair to row Australia's double scull for the 2019 international season. They placed 5th at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan and 6th at WRC III in Rotterdam. With David Watts, Cameron Girdlestone and Playfair, Watts selected to race Australia's quad scull at the

2019 World Rowing Championships The 2019 World Rowing Championships were held in Ottensheim, Austria from 25 August to 1 September 2019. Apart from Ottensheim, the right to host the championships was contested by Hamburg in Germany, Račice (Litoměřice District), Račice in ...

in Linz, Austria. The quad were looking for a top eight finish at the 2019 World Championships to qualify for the

Tokyo Olympics Tokyo Olympics may refer to: * 1940 Summer Olympics, Games of the XII Olympiad, cancelled due to World War II * 1964 Summer Olympics, Games of the XVIII Olympiad * 2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an ...

. They won their heat and placed third in semi-final, thereby qualifying the boat for the A-final and the

Tokyo 2020 The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. They finished in overall world fourth place. Watts was ultimately not selected in the Australian quad for Tokyo. Before those delayed

at the final Olympic qualification regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland in May 2021 and paired with David Watts, he raced an Australian representative double scull attempting to qualify that boat. They made their final, finished in 3rd place and missed the Olympic cut-off by one place. However Watts continued to train on with the Australian men's sculling squad and when final crews were announced six weeks out from the event, he was selected as a travelling reserve. In March 2023 Watts was selected in Australian men's sculling squad for the 2023 international season. At the

Rowing World Cup The World Rowing Cup is an international rowing competition organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It began in 1997 and comprises three regattas (apart from in 2001 when there were four) held throughout early summer. In each ...

II in Varese, Italy with Caleb Antill, David Bartholot and Cormac Kennedy-Leverett they raced as Australia's M4X entrant. They made the A final and with Bartholot changed out for Henry Youl they finished in sixth place. At 2023's RWC III in Lucerne, with Bartholot back in the boat they again raced the M4X. Again they made the A final and in a photo finish for the bronze medal, they finished behind Romania in fourth place.

Personal life

Watts studied a Bachelor of Property and Real Estate/Bachelor of Commerce at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Campbell 1995 births Living people Australian male rowers World Rowing Championships medalists for Australia Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill 21st-century Australian sportsmen