Callum Graham crowned World Junior Shore Angling Champion 2012

16 year old Callum Graham from Southbourne is feeling on top of the world after clinching the individual gold medal during the week-long World Junior Shore Angling Championships held in the Budva region of Montenegro.

Callum, who attends St Peters Sixth Form College in Bournemouth put in a superb performance and is a worthy winner of the individual gold medal. On the first day of the World Championships he came first in his section, with another first place on day two, on day three he slipped to fifth in his section, but on the final day he again rallied for another section win to clinch the gold medal World Championship title.

To put the icing on the cake the five strong Angling Trust England Junior team took the junior team bronze medal. The team included Jaon Voller from Christchurch, Daniel Stote from Lymington, Daniel Phillips from Lee on Solent and Martin Smith from Kent.
Angling Trust England Junior team Manager, Chris Clark was delighted with the team’s performance. Chris said “Getting a result on foreign soil is always difficult, but getting such a result in Montenegro where the team had to use unfamiliar baits to catch species of fish never encountered in UK waters was a real achievement.” Both Chris and Assistant Manager David Graham were extremely proud of their young England Lions.

The team and the Angling Trust would like to thank the many sponsors including both the Christchurch and Lymington clubs, Christchurch Angling Centre, Moonfleet Angling, Fox International, Kamasan and their main sponsor Tronix Pro.

The World Youth Shore Championships which was held in conjunction with the junior event also proved to be successful for the England team under the management of the England Youth Manager, Mark Hurcombe, which included Ollie Hopkins from Lymington, Toby Oldfield from Christchurch (fifth individual), Stephen Rathbone from West Bay, Michael Brooks from Birkenhead and Ben Harrison from Wigan.

They collected a team bronze while Michael Brooks took the individual bronze, which was a fantastic achievement for the team who have worked very hard at this World Championship level.

Generally it was an extremely successful championship for the England young lions who were a credit both to their country and to the Angling Trust.

The Angling Trust would like to offer their congratulations to the England Junior and Youth Shore teams and Managers for doing such a magnificent job in bringing home the medals this year.

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust said “we are delighted for all these budding young anglers that they have excelled on the World stage and represented their country so well. Particular congratulations should go to Callum for becoming Junior World Champion; there is no doubt that he is a potential star of the future. Many thanks are due to the team Managers, who have given so much time as volunteers to support and train these anglers to reach these incredibly high standards. Come on England!

Overall Results:

Junior Individual results
1st Callum Graham – England 28.00 points
2nd Gianluca Lenzi – Italy 34.00 points
3rd Francisco Pinto – Portugal 39.00 points
4th Ana Martinez – Spain 40.00 points

England Junior Individual positions
6th Martin Smith – England 47.00 points
8th Daniel Stote – England 51.00 points
27th Daniel Phillips – England 95.00 points
30th Jaon Voller – England 101.00 points

Junior Team Results
1st Portugal 8 points
2nd Italy 14 points
3rd England 14 points
4th Spain 14 points

Youth Individual Results
1st Jeromy Van Houdt – Holland 12 points
2nd Kees Gillissen – Holland 27 points
3rd Michael Brooks – England 30 points
4th Nino Jukic – Croatia – 35 pionts
England Youth Individual positions
5th Toby Oldfield England 37 points
15th Ben Harrison 76 points
17th Oliver Hopkins 81 points
24th Stephen Rathbone 92 points

Junior Team Results
1st Holland
2nd Croatia
3rd England