1972 New Zealand rowing eight

  • At the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, the New Zealand Rowing Eight won gold.
  • The crew was Tony Hurt, Wybo Veldman, Dick Joyce, John Hunter, Lindsay Wilson, Athol Earle, Trever Coker, Gary Robertson and cox Simon Dickie.
  • The New Zealand team were among the favourites to win and achieved gold beating their closest opponents by nearly three seconds.
  • Coach of the team was Rusty Robertson. Robertson started rowing in Oamaru when he was 16 but a serious car accident forced his retirement from the sport. He turned to coaching instead and became one of the world’s foremost rowing coaches. He became a New Zealand national selector and trained New Zealand teams internationally until he was lured to Australia in 1976. Crew member Gary Robertson was his nephew.
  • The Rusty Robertson Cup is awarded to the highest scoring team in the yearly Transtasman rowing competitions. Rusty Robertson died in 1990.

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