Today marks a big change in the fortunes of Peter Hardcastle and our squad at Mosman Rowing Club.

After representing Mosman and Australia for the past 11 years, Peter is moving on to the next phase of his life, and will be based in the UK for some time.
Peter first moved from Sydney to Perth in 1997 to row in an Australian Under 23 Quad Scull that I was coaching out of the WA Institute of Sport in Perth. He repeated this move for National Team duties again in 1998 and 1999.
Once again in 2000 he crossed the country to train in WA - this time as a member of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Quad Scull.
In 2001, I was the one to do the moving, and I shifted to Sydney to the NSW Institute of Sport, where I continued my coaching of Peter. He continued his good form, making every team he trialled for, up to, and including the Athens Olympics.
In 2007, showing both foresight and generosity, Mosman Rowing Club funded Peter and I to travel to the UK for him to race in the Marlow regatta at Eton, where he won on both days, and at Henley Royal Regatta, where he was only beaten in the Diamond Sculls by the eventual winner, Alan Campbell
Back in Sydney several weeks later, after an injury to another Mosman team member- Dan Noonan- Peter took a phone call from the Team Head Coach asking him to perform a 2km erg test the next morning.
Peter’s result was such that he got an immediate invitation to join the team in Varese, Italy preparing for the Munich World Championships.
Remarkably, just 18 days after that phone call, and overcoming travel and time zone difficulties, as well as rowing in a boat that he had never used before, Peter won the last qualifying spot for the single scull at the Beijing Olympics.
Peter’s career has included numerous firsts- First Gold medal by an Aussie U/23 quad scull in the Nations Cup, First medal by an Aussie mens senior quad at World Championships, First Australian sculler to compete in all three sculling boats at the Olympics, First Mosman rower to compete at three Olympics, and of course numerous World Cup medals, beating, along the way, World and Olympic Champions. Defeating triple World Champion Mahe Drysdale in the 500 metre sprint at the Oklahoma International Regatta last year is also a memory that Peter will treasure.

We’ll miss Peter, but we’re sure he’ll be back larger than life

Nick Garratt

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This entry was posted by Nick on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 22:16and is filed under News. You can leave a response.