Darren Balmforth
Australian rower
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Darren Bruce Balmforth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 16 October 1972 (1972-10-16) (age 51) Hobart, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Club | Lindisfarne Rowing Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Darren Bruce Balmforth (born 16 October 1972 in Hobart) is an Australian former lightweight rower. He was a twelve-time Australian national champion,[1] a world champion and an Olympic silver medallist.
Club and state rowing
Balmforth commenced his rowing as a coxswain at Rose Bay High School in Hobart.[1] His senior rowing was from the Lindisfarne Rowing Club in Hobart. He won a Tasmanian Institute of Sport Scholarship from 1993 to 2003 and was named as the Tasmanian Institute of Sport's Athlete of the Year in 1999 and 2000.[1]
Balmforth rowed in Tasmanian representative men's lightweight fours contesting the Penrith Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships in 1994 and from 1998 to 2002. His Tasmanian crews were victorious in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.[2]
International representative rowing
Balmforth first represented Australia in the lightweight double scull at the 1994 World Rowing U23 Championships in Paris. He placed second. That same year he was selected in the Australian senior lightweight squad and seated at three in the lightweight eight who raced at the 1994 World Rowing Championships in Indianapolis. That crew finished in tenth place. [3]
It was 1997 before he was again seated in the eight at a World Championship. At Aiguebelette 1997 the Australians won a thrilling final by 0.03 seconds with only 1.5 lengths separating the field. Balmforth won his first and only World Championship title.[3] For Cologne 1998 and then at St Catharine's 1999 Balmforth rowed in the Australian coxless four with Anthony Edwards, Bob Richards and the Tasmanian champion Simon Burgess. That four took bronze in 1998 and silver in 1999.[3]
That same lightweight coxless four stayed together for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.[4] The event showcased two match races between the Australians and the French crew. They met in a semi-final where the Australians (with Burgess in the three seat) pipped the French by 3/100ths of a second. In the final the Australians led for much of the race. The French tried once to break through and failed, then a second time and failed and finally with a matter of metres to go broke through to win by less than half a second. Both races were a superb highlight of the regatta and won Balmforth Olympic silver in his last Australian representative appearance.[5]
Accolades
On 16 January 2001, Balmforth was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for services to Olympic Sport and Rowing.[6] In 2010 he was inducted to the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d "Balmforth Tas Hall of Fame". dpac.tas.gov.au.
- ^ "2002 Australian Championships". Archived from the original on 9 May 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ a b c "Darren Balmforth". WorldRowing.com. World Rowing. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019.
- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Darren Balmforth". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 4 December 2016.
- ^ "Sydney Olympics at Guerin Foster". Archived from the original on 8 July 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
- ^ "Darren Balmforth". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
External links
- Darren Balmforth at World Rowing
- Darren Palmforth at World Rowing
- Darren Balmforth at Olympics.com
- Darren Balmforth at Olympic.org (archived)
- Darren Balmforth at the Australian Olympic Committee
- Darren Balmforth at Olympedia
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World champions – Lightweight men's eight
- 1974:
(Baldino, Gaynor, Nauman, Harman, Aserlind, Ewing, Feld, Grogan, cox Hartigan) - 1975:
(Meyer, Lutz, Braun, Maye, Fritsch, Buhren, Lobing, Kerkhoff, cox Neumeister) - 1976: (Werner, Zimmer, Büsken, Nentwig, Neubert, Meschede, Huck, Nehmer, cox Sassenbach)
- 1977:
(Read, Stuart-Bennett, George, Simpole, Cusack, Innes, Topolski, Drury, cox Sweeney) - 1978: (Simpole, Read, Drury, Downie, Roberts, Zeun, Melvin, French, cox Moynihan)
- 1979:
(Goicoechea, Arteaga, Uriarte, Expósito, Elizalde, Redondo, Puertas, Climent, cox Olasagasti) - 1980: (Barratt, Hosking, Downie, Howe, Zeun, Roberts, Read, Simpole, cox Jefferies)
- 1981:
(Knudsen, Jensen, Mølgaard, Højlund, Hansson, Eriksen, Espersen, Fransson, cox Klug-Andersen) - 1982:
(Valentinis, Torta, Pantano, Tontodonati, R. Borsini, L. Borsini, Castiglioni, Salani, cox Di Capua) - 1983: (Moya, Cañete, Génova, Muniesa, Crespo, Briones, Llorente, Elizalde, cox Rojí)
- 1984: (Mølgaard, Jacobsen, Højlund, Hansson, Christensen, Jensen, Espersen, Kobbernagel, cox Rasmussen)
- 1985: (Losi, Savoia, Torcellan, Lana, Spremberg, Marostica, Re, Ravasi, cox Di Deco)
- 1986: (Losi, Savoia, Torcellan, Lana, Spremberg, Gaddi, Re, Ravasi, cox Di Deco)
- 1987: (Losi, Striani, Torcellan, Lana, Spremberg, Gaddi, Re, Ravasi, cox Zanetti)
- 1988: (Striani, Re, Spremberg, Losi, Ravasi, Barbaranelli, Bellomo, Torcellan, cox Velotti)
- 1989: (Barbaranelli, Romanini, Falossi, Fraquelli, Torcellan, Gaddi, Re, Ravasi, cox Lamberti)
- 1990: (Barbaranelli, Falossi, Gaddi, Ranieri, Ravasi, Re, Romanini, Striani, cox Lamberti)
- 1991: (Barbaranelli, Cantoni, Gaddi, Marigliano, Ranieri, Ravasi, Re, Romanini, cox Iannuzzi)
- 1992: (Andersen, Blitskov, Buck, Hansen, Jensen Kollat, Meyer, Poulsen, Vestergaard, cox Sorensen)
- 1993:
(Boyes, Cookson, Fontaine, Hassett, Lay, Peaker, Sommerwil, Thompson, cox Newman) - 1994: (Bates, Cox, Ellis, Hessian, Kay, Lemon, McNiven, Smith, cox Deakin)
- 1995: (Andersen, Bech Jensen, Buck, Glud, Henrichsen, Jensen Kollat, Jensen, Vestergaard, cox Larsen)
- 1996: (Bech, Edeler, Jenny, Locher, Mielke, Töpfer, Vukelic, Maerz, cox Klotz)
- 1997:
(Balmforth, Berney, Burgess, Isherwood, Mitchell, Richards, Wiseman, Wright, cox Hayman) - 1998: (Edeler, Ibielski, Laib, Locher, Rosenberger, Stomporowski, Strauch, Vukelic, cox Kaska)
- 1999: (Plifka, Kerber, Cashman, Den Besten, Cotter, Ruckman, Tripician, Kammann, cox Salamini)
- 2000: (Miller, Mack, Cashman, Winkler, Fedyna, Schwartz, Maclaurin, Warner, cox Fien-Helfman)
- 2001:
(Dupy, Péron, Porchier, Bussière, Touron, Bette, Hocdé, Dorfman, cox Lattaignant) - 2002: (Scala, Lodigiani, Del Gaudio, Moriconi, Paniccia, Grande, Fraquelli, Pasqualini, cox Di Palma)
- 2003: (Seibt, Raeder, Drews, Hasse, Borchardt, Schmidt, Hobein, Dahlke, cox Kaska)
- 2004: (Solforosi, Margat, Saïtta, Pouge, Bussière, Faucheux, Planque, Tilliet, cox Majerus)
- 2005: (Vlcek, Danesin, Savrie, Goretti, Scala, Moriconi, Del Gaudio, Gabriele, cox Barattolo)
- 2006: (Scala, Tuccinardi, La Padula, Sancassani, Goretti, Savrie, Vlcek, Gabriele, cox Lenzi)
- 2007:
(van den Broek, Bottema, Blankert, Beemsterboer, Tromp, Greidanus, Snijders, Godschalk, cox Wiersum) - 2008: (Carcagno, Bolton, Farrell, Altman, Todd, Daly, Paradiso, Muffelman, cox del Guercio)
- 2009: (Scala, Riccardi, La Padula, Goretti, Ceccatelli, Gallo, Vlcek, Mascarenhas, cox Lenzi)
- 2010: (Wisgott, Gerhardt, Lüke, Wichert, J. Kühner, Seibt, Schömann-Finck, M. Kühner, cox Kowert)
- 2011: (Bertrand, Brown, Tunevitsch, Gibson, Foot, Chisholm, Baker, Purcell, cox Webster)
- 2012: (M. Schömann-Finck, J. Schömann-Finck, M. Kühner, Schützeberg, Hochbruck, J. Kühner, Seibt, Wichert, cox Sauer)
- 2013: (Molteni, Amarante, Zaharia, Barbaro, Oppo, Serpico, Schisano, Di Girolamo, cox D'Aniello)
- 2014: (Franzmann, Barr, Neumann, Wallat, Wisgott, Kilthau, Keßler, Temel, cox Böhm)
- 2015: (Schad, Barr, Neumann, Roller, Franzmann, Wallat, Mertens, Temel, cox Heinemann)
