AS a world champion and Olympic medalist rower, former University of York student Tom Ransley has enjoyed his fair share of champagne moments.

But he was toasting a different kind of honour on the banks of the River Ouse, as he christened a four-man boat that will bear his name.

To commemorate his successes as a member of Great Britain’s heavyweight squad, Ransley's old rowing club, City of York, paid the ultimate tribute in a ceremony at their boathouse on the Western Esplanade.

It was then given its first outing by a crew of Pat Evans, Andy Wilkinson, Ben Bollans and Dan Lewis.

Ransley, who competed for City of York from 2004 to 2007 before becoming a Cambridge Blue, was delighted to receive the accolade.

“It feels really good to have the boat named after me," he said.

“I’m extremely proud to be a part of the club and it’s a great honour that they’ve chosen me. It feels awesome to come back.

"It’s such a great community and a family atmosphere. I feel like I’m straight back at home almost.”

After breaking into the Team GB squad eight years ago, Ransley went on to bag bronze at the Olympics in 2012 in the eight-man boat and became a world champion last year, as a winning member of the four-man crew in Poland.

The 30-year-old, who studied history of art at York, valued the chance the club gave him to put down roots in the local community.

“It was an important part of my life for three years,” he said. “It was awesome to go to university and to have the education, to expand your horizons and have a bit of independence.

“What I really liked about the club was meeting with people who live here and not just being wrapped up in the university bubble. I made friends for life through this club and it’s really important to me.”

Ransley remembered that it was the rigorous approach the club took to its training that attracted him to join.

“I’d not done too much rowing before coming here,” he said. “I stopped it for a while and took up boxing, but I couldn’t find a club which trained as many days of the week as York were training.

“It was quite intense here and that’s what pulled me back into rowing.”

The rower, who hails from Ashford in Kent, praised the commitment of his colleagues, including Wilkinson, who helped earned him a place in the GB Under-23 squad and also paid tribute to the hard work of those behind the scenes at the club.

“My crew were fundamental. It was a small, core group of guys who were really motivated,” Ransley recalled. “Alongside jobs and academic work, we managed to push the programme and achieve a win at Henley.

“There are so many people behind the scenes in the committee, helping the club run smoothly. It was good to see lots of faces that I recognised and it was good to be back.”

Evans spoke of the club’s pride at naming the boat after Ransley in his role as master of ceremonies.

“It’s a very proud moment," he said. "We name boats every year after different members who have done things to support the club and we like to honour people in that way.

“The boat’s already raced, without a name on it. We don’t tend to race boats before naming them but, because of Tom’s availability, he only got one day off.

“Our junior membership is thriving and, in fact, one of our junior members went to the World Championships, following in Tom’s footsteps.”

Wilkinson, who rowed with Ransley during his time at the club, remembered the work that went in to earning him GB qualification.

“We were lending Tom boats, lending him blades and masquerading as under-23s to go to trials and pair with him, just to try and get him the next stage on in GB," he revealed.

“We always felt Tom would go on to be a huge success.

"Winning at Henley got him spotted and, from there, he was straight into the U23s camp. That got him noticed - a small northern club doesn’t very often go down there and win.”