The duo of Watkins and Grainger, coached by Paul Thompson, were described by the sport's world governing body at the annual dinner as the "perfect combination" and were praised for winning their world title in "dominating style" at the World Championships in New Zealand last November.

Meanwhile, single sculler Aggar, the reigning Paralympic and world champion who is coached by Tom Dyson, was told he had "set the standard in adaptive rowing" and paid tribute to his continuing unbeaten run at international level during which he has twice lowered his own World Best time.

As well as being unbeaten in the double scull Grainger and Watkins also doubled up at each of the 2010 season's World Cup events, winning three golds in the double scull and two golds and a silver in the quadruple scull.

Grainger said:  "It was a fantastic summer last year for both Anna and I and now winning this is just the perfect end to that season.

"It's an incredible honour to be chosen for this award by FISA especially considering all the fantastic racing performances there were in 2010.

"Paul Thompson, our coach, Anna and I put in a lot of hard work to get the results we did but it's been worth every second."

New Zealand's Dicks Tonks was chosen as coach of the year.

In 2010 Tonks was a big part of the then medals won by New Zealand at the World Rowing Championships.

His own crews included the gold medal men's pair.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
November 2011: Grainger wins world fifth title as Britain finish Championships with high five