Olympics-Rowing-Hunter's journey takes him from Thames to gold
BEIJING, Aug 17 (Reuters) - British rower Mark Hunter, who trained to be a boatman on London's River Thames, reached the pinnacle of his sport on Sunday and yelled in sheer disbelief "We are Olympic champions."
Flat out with exhaustion after he and Zac Purchase had won the lightweight men's double sculls, he was not going to miss out on his moment of glory.
His partner held him up by the shoulder as they relived every minute of their triumph.
"That is what being an Olympic champion is all about, putting everything on the line and believing that you will get to the end and that is what I did," he said, gasping for breath as he talked, slumped over the barriers for support.
Hunter, who grew up in London's working-class East End, was originally apprenticed for six years learning to qualify as a boatman on passenger and freight vessels on the River Thames.
"I like being unique. That is good," the 30-year-old said, the joy of victory just starting to sink in.
"It just came down to man to man at the end. We put ourselves on the line early," he said after they held off the fast-finishing Greeks Dimitrios Mougios and Vasileios Polymeros.
Bitten by the rowing bug, Hunter first took to the water in the 1990s at his local club in the Isle of Dogs, a rundown part of east London now transformed by the development of the Canary Wharf financial district.
"That is where my rowing career began. Thanks to the people there, especially my Dad," he told reporters afterwards.
In a sport dominated in Britain by hulking former pupils of elite private schools, Hunter let his sculling blades do the talking.
A decade later, he was elected president of Leander, the world's oldest and most famous rowing club.
That meant rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous at the Royal Regatta in Henley, which ranks alongside Royal Ascot and Glyndebourne Opera as a high spot of the summer social season.
Reflecting on his life-long journey to Olympic gold in Beijing, he said: "We were strong enough to hold on and do our job. No one can take that away from us."
Then, as the strains of "God Save the Queen" rose above the podium, relief and raw emotions were written all over his face. (editing by Keith Weir)
