Rowing: Doubling up could be the answer for higher Purchase in Beijing
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Your support makes all the difference.With the waters of Linz in Austria becoming a golden pond last weekend for many of Britain's Beijing-bound rowers, the silver medal secured by Zac Purchase may appear to be a mere consolatory trinket. This, after all, was last year's lightweight world champion single sculler.
Yet when the 21-year-old from Tewkesbury finished runner-up with his partner Mark Hunter in the opening World Cup regatta after only a few weeks' training it was confirmation that he had made a swift, successful transition to the two-man boat.
Zachary Purchase. It has been a name to be reckoned with since he triumphed in the single sculls at last year's World Champion-ships at Eton. But where to progress from there? The problem was that single sculls for lightweights is not an Olympic class so he formed a double, which is an Olympic event, with Hunter, whom Purchase beat to win the British trials earlier this year. It is by no means a straightforward conversion of his talents.
"In the single, you very much do your own thing," Purchase explains. "As long as you're in harmony with the boat, that's fine. Now, in the double, you've both got to be in time with the boat and in time with each other. It adds another dimension, which is much more challenging. But as long as you really want to achieve something, I believe you can do it in any boat class. Mark has a lot of experience and I'm still learning."
Pretty swiftly, on this evidence, given that his ambition this year was "to make the A finals in regattas, and be on the edge of the medals". Last weekend, Purchase and Hunter were only beaten by the Danes, the reigning world champions.
The multi-faceted Purchase, a world champion on water and master of the internet on dry land - in his life outside rowing he designs websites - is part of a Great Britain squad who promise great things. Among the medallists last weekend were members of four crews who won gold: the men's four, pair and double sculls, and the women's quadruple sculls.
Can it be a case of higher Purchase in Beijing? "It's going to be tough," he says. "Most of the doubles have been around for years. We've only got months to do it, but it also means we can be a lot more focused and driven towards our own goals."
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