Zac Purchase

Purchase was awarded an MBE in the 2009 New Year's Honours list in recognition of his achievement.

 He is taking a 'gap' for the 2009 summer programme following a springtime viral infection and will focus now on racing in 2010.

Purchase’s competitive rowing career started when he began at the King’s School in Worcester. Initially too young to row, he offered his services as a coxswain until he was able to sit in a crew boat. It was soon apparent that Purchase had a talent for the sport and those first few ‘lucky’ wins became the beginning of a successful six year winning streak.

Purchase is one of Britain's most talented young scullers. At the 2005 Great Britain Rowing Senior Trials, in his first 2000m race as a lightweight, he made the A Final and finished third, an excellent result.

In 2005 he raced as a senior single sculler at the Eton World Cup Regatta, finishing fourth, and went on to win silver at the Munich World Cup in June 2005.

Having won the World U23 title in a lightweight single scull in 2005, he carried on to the senior World Championships later that year to take a world silver medal in the same boat class.

In his first major senior-level outing in Lucerne in June of 2006, he won a gold in the lightweight single scull, despite having missed much of the preceding winter's training with a wrist injury.

On the strength of that result and his 2005 achievements, he was selected to race for Great Britain in the lightweight single scull at the World Championships at Eton in August 2006, where he took the gold medal in front of a home crowd.

Purchase won a bronze medal in the lightweight double scull at the 2007 World Rowing Championships. He was the 2006 World lightweight singles champion and won in the same class at the 2007 GB Rowing Senior Trials. He is the World Record holder in this class, achieved at the World Championship final at Eton in 2006.

He won silver in the lightweight men's double at the Linz World Cup in June 2007, silver in the lightweight men's double at the Amsterdam World Cup and bronze in the lightweight men's double at the Lucerne World Cup. In the 2008 World Cup series he raced in the lightweight double winning three golds.

To read more please visit: http://www.zacpurchase.com/

Last Updated August 2009