RowingRelated

Olympic gold and silver medalist Mark Hunter knows a thing or two about rowing, but his appreciation of sports goes beyond boats and oars, extending nearly half way around the world to the San Francisco 49ers . As Hunter (who just arrived in New Orleans) details in his most recent column for the London Evening Standard  entitled, "The 49 reasons why I'm really living the dream," he's been a Niners fan since the late 80s, when San Francisco visited Wembley to take on the Miami Dolphins  in a preseason game—Hunter got to meet some of the players, and later decided to do whatever it took to keep tabs on his favorite team (including staying up into the wee hours to watch the games live with a five- to eight-hour time difference). Leaving the media centre. CK7 posing for us! twitter.com/MarkHunterGB/s… — Mark Hunter (@MarkHunterGB) February 1, 2013 While many rowers don't often look beyond their own sport, it can be very important and useful to have a sense for the...

The GB Trials scheduled for this coming weekend will feature a couple of notable no-shows, including defending world and Olympic champion in the lightweight men's double, Zac Purchase . Not only will Purchase be on the sidelines for the event, he posted what some feel is a controversial blog entry to his website yesterday, explaining the situation while alluding to his past successes at Trials as well as his hopes for the London Games. The last three years have been difficult for Purchase from a training perspective, as he missed an entire year of competition due to illness following Beijing (also, doubles partner Mark Hunter was taking a year off, coaching with the UCLA women's rowing team in California–more on this in Hunter's RR interview following worlds last year), and since then has battled illnesses at key times, only to come back and deliver again and again when it counts most. Just last year, Purchase missed Lucerne due to illness; Hunter raced to an eighth plac...

Hunter (left) and Purchase after the A final in Bled (Photo: B. Kitch) Mark Hunter is a racer, through and through. From his earliest days in the sport, he exhibited the right combination of talent and determination that it takes to succeed, and in September of this year he and fellow GB lightweight Zac Purchase successfully defended their world championship title (for a video interview with Hunter and Purchase from Bled following the race, click here ). Next year in Eton, Mark and Zac will look to defend their Olympic crown on home water–something that means a great deal both of them as they embark on the path to London 2012. Here, Mark shares a little about his past, present, and hopes for the future with RR. RR: You've been involved in the sport of rowing for quite some time now, and are currently among those GB oarsmen favo(u)red to win a second gold medal in 2012, in your home town (well, I guess technically closer to Slough, but near your hometown, anyway). How did your ...

Okay, we know we've been on a tear recently with the Worlds videos, but it's time to give the lightweights some love. The GB 'dynamic duo' of Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase had an absolute cracker of a race against Peter Taylor and Storm Uru of New Zealand, making a move a just the right time to earn their margin, and holding onto it well through a blazing sprint from the Kiwis (as usual). "It was a fist fight at the end, and we came out on top," said Hunter (click here to view the Rowing News video interview). The Greek LW2x of Alexandra Tsiavou (winner of the RoRy for Best Female Athlete in 2011 at the Elite level) and Christina Giazitzidou dominated in Bled, and it was no different at the European Championships two weeks later in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The added benefit of the above video is that the lanes were redrawn, placing the Greeks nearest the camera and allowing the viewer to get a sense for both the power and precision that has placed them...

Check out the Rowing News Twitter feed ( @RowingNews ) this weekend for live updates and coverage of the NCAA Championships, as Bryan teams up with RowingNews.com to bring you coverage from the event. Also, check out the RR Facebook page for updates from Munich and other articles covering the World Cup, which began earlier today with time trials and heats in several events. The team to watch is Great Britain , with a total of 23 entries (all of which are still in contention following today's racing) – gearing up in earnest for this summer's World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia (August 28 through September 4, 2011). The GB squad will look to make a statement about London, 2012 this summer in the final cycle before the Olympic year begins. In light of the success of the GB squad at the previous World Championship Regatta in Karapiro, as well as their solid outlook for the rowing season in 2011, we caught up with Olympic Champion Mark Hunter of the GB Lightweight men...