THE SPORT OF ROWING from men’s singles. That’s kind of where I put them.”7650 Zac Purchase After Athens, the challenge for Great Britain became finding a double partner for Mark Hunter for 2008. If Mark Hunter was a cockney waterman, young Zac Purchase, eight years Hunter’s junior, was closer to the British rowing norm. He had gone to a public school founded by Henry VII in 1541. www.olympics.org.uk: FISA 2006 DVD Zac Purchase “Purchase’s competitive rowing career started when he began at the King’s School in Worcester. Initially too young to row, he offered his services as a coxswain until he was able to sit in a crew boat. It was soon apparent that Purchase had a talent for the sport, and those first few ‘lucky’ wins became the beginning of a successful six-year winning streak.”7651 Hunter: “He’s the young, not-scared-of- anything kid, and I’m the older, been-there, understand-it type. Mind you, that’s on the water. Zac’s a bit more adult off it! But it works pretty well.”7652 “I remember when I first raced him in 2005 in singles. At National Trials, he came third. I won quite comfortably, but the fact was I saw this young kid. I was like, ‘He’s going to be good!’ “I said to the team manager at that point, ‘I’ll be around that guy in a couple of years.’ I didn’t expect it to be as quick as it was. “It may seem like Zac Purchase just walked in the door and jumped on it, but he had a lot of disappointments as a junior. He 7650 Hunter, personal conversation, 2009 7651 www.olympics.org.uk 7652 Wilson, op. cit. wasn’t the gifted one as a junior. He did bad at juniors,7653 and he came out of that by going into a single. He wanted to go and prove himself as an individual, which was great for him. 2005 Hunter: “The top lightweight athletes go in the top boat, the double, which is the Olympic event. That’s what funding’s all about. In 2005, I was put in the double with James Lindsay-Finn,7654 and Zac was a rising development guy. When he won the Under-23 World Championship in the singles, they let him do the Seniors, and he did fantastic. He won Silver in that.7655”7656 2006 Hunter: “The following year, 2006, they were hoping to move Zac into the double, but he injured his wrist during 7653 6th in the Quads in 2003, 7th in the Doubles in 2004 7654 a member of the 11th place Irish Lightweight Men’s Quad in 2000. 7655 behind Vasileios Polymeros of Greece. 7656 Hunter, op. cit. 2126
