Peter Haining elite rowing expert, Olympian and 3 times World Gold Medalist in Lightweight single sculls.

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Timestamps to the show

02:40 Peter’s background in rowing started when he come in 1966. He ended up winning World Gold in LM1x three times.

05:20 I was born lucky. My Mother was the only person in her maternity ward whose child wasn’t born thalidomide - the morning sickness drug’s side effects weren’t known.

07:15 I was brought up in a damp house and I had bronchitis and asthma as a child. My brother George died of pneumonia aged 6 weeks.

10:30 My Father, Jackie Haining was a member at Loch Lomond Rowing Club and he coached the juniors,.

17:30 George Parsonage and the Glasgow Humane Society. I was watching George sell and how he connects to the boat - he was so fast. I told George I”d beat his Guinness World Record for rowing the length of Loch Ness in 2 hours 43 minutes and I didn’t.

22:30 I went to York regatta and raced Chris Williams from Tideway Scullers in the elite 1x and we dead heated three times. He said I should try racing lightweight. John Pritchard lent me his Glyn Locke single boat stored at Imperial College with Billy Mason.

26:00 Rowing the pair with Glen Knight we went to trials and Mr Raynor lent us his 10.5 stone single scull - it was rigged right over left. We did 42 seat races over 1500 meters before I won selection into the LM8+ and we won at Luzern. It’s a special regatta and I’ve got several medals from there. I dropped my Dad’s wedding ring into the lake when we lifted out boat out of the water.

32:30 I moved back into Lwt 1x after I saw this Staempfli boat at Henley Royal Regatta and I wanted to row like them - it was Ian Wilson’s Nottinghamshire Country Rowing Association crew. So I moved to Nottingham to live and train.

36:00 I was late once too often for the 8s outing and got dropped for being unreliable. Ray Sims offered me a single. I was livid. I decided whatever training the 8 did I would do 2 more trips than them.

39:00 Mike Spraklen wrote to me saying “Miles make champions - but they have to be good miles.”

45:00 I went to Paris to race and try to be the first lightweight to go sub 7 minutes. Frans Goebel the Dutch sculler was just so fast - his catches and finishes were amazing.

The Spanish sculler taught me the catch drill’ Niall O’Toole the Irish sculler taught me to reach with your chest.

52:00 The future of rowing - there’s a lot of urban staleness and the business models of how we get our grants is broken. Participation in rowing is only 300,000 in UK it’s pathetically small. WE need to be more inclusive.

54:00 Team Keane is where I coach - it’s run like a US programme where you pay for your programme and you get coached.

Contact Peter

www.elitesculling.com