'Rowing coach is my unsung hero'

By Emma Midgley
BBC Berkshire

Alex Partridge won silver at the Beijing Olympics in 2008

Henley-based Olympic rower Alex Partridge says he owes his sporting career to unsung heroes.

Alex rows at the Henley Leander Club, a centre of excellence which attracts rowers from across Britain.

The British Olympic Silver medallist took up rowing at school thanks to a coach who dedicated hours to the sport.

Alex said: "I wouldn't have got into rowing without unsung heroes. My first coach spent hours helping us. He had such enthusiasm for the sport."

He added: "I came over from the States, and I went to Monkton Combe School, where I started rowing.

"Coach Julian Bewick would have all of us over once a week for extra food for meals, and would drive the trailer for miles and miles.

It's those people that make you enjoy the sport when you're young Alex Partridge

"You only get to see the pictures on the TV of the elite level rowing, the Olympic levels.

"What nobody sees is these dark hours coaches spend driving from Bath to Stourport on a winter morning. People get up at 4.30 just so a trailer can be there for 25 16-year-olds.

"It's those people that make you enjoy the sport when you're young and that leads to the opportunities you get later on in life."

Alex has experienced highs and lows in career as a rower. In the 2004 Athens Olympics he was forced to give up his place in the men's four after he was diagnosed with a collapsed lung. The team won gold without him.

At Beijing Alex won silver in the men's eight, and says he is feeling fit for the London 2012 Olympics.

"I'm feeling pretty good," he told BBC Radio Berkshire's Phil Kennedy. "I had a really cool summer, we ended up ended up winning the world championships in Poland.

"It was just great fun. We had a load of fun together as a four. My coach Mark Banks, another unsung hero, coached me as a junior ten years previously and he's involved as a senior coach now."

Alex won Gold at the World Championships in Poznan on August 29

"The thing about rowing is you have to perform every year, and four years is a long time. We train really hard and try and put ourselves in the best position. If the chief coach decides that's what he wants to go for, he's got 30 years of gold medals.

"After Beijing, when we got a silver in the men's eight, I made a decision that I can be put into any boat, whatever boat I go into I have to make that boat go as fast as I can."

The BBC's Sports Personality of the Year team is searching for unsung heroes across Britain. If you would like to nominate your hero, click here to find out more.