Rowing: One year on Cooper eyes Olympic rowing glory

Jan 25 2008 by Staff Reporter, Liverpool Daily Post

TWELVE months ago, Martin Cooper had never even sat in a rowing boat. Today he is setting his on sights on the Olympic Games with the Great Britain rowing team.

The 20-year-old, from Mossley Hill in Liverpool, has fought off stiff competiton from nearly 5,000 hopefuls who applied to take part at the 2012 Games in London.

Cooper answered the call from a campaign named ‘Sporting Giants’, for which male candidates needed to be at least 6ft 3in tall. Cooper, at 6ft 4in, was one of 1,500 candidates who had their applications approved.

He was then assessed in Manchester before the pool was whittled down to 60 at an intensive programme in Nottingham. The group was then cut to 40, of which half were male. Martin was the third-ranked male overall.

Martin admitted he entered and “thought nothing more of it”, but was then asked to take part in the preliminary assessments in Manchester.

“Assessors were not looking for a prior background in rowing,” he said. “But they were concerned with raw talent in the areas of physical build, strength and endurance and a history of involvement in endurance sport.”

The reward for making it through the rigourous testing is probable inclusion in future GB squads, with the World Class Start Programme being the stepping stone to representing your country.

Paul Cooper, Martin’s father, said: “The medium-term goal for squad members is to progress to selection to the GB Under-23 team in 18 months. After that, the big prize is the senior GB squad and the fierce battle for a chance to compete before an Olympics home crowd.”

Martin hopes to be included in the senior GB setup in three years’ time.

The Sporting Giants programme was aimed at existing athletes who also fitted certain height and weight criteria.

“The programme gave the chance to take talent from other sports, as only rowers have been coming forward previously,” Martin said.

Martin’s background as an athlete includes being a swimmer as a schoolboy for City of Liverpool; a tennis player and part-time coach at the Liverpool Tennis Centre; and a cyclist with Liverpool Century.

He is also a first-year student at Liverpool John Moores University studying Sports Science. While there he is also part of the elite athletes scholarship scheme, where members are expected to be representing their country in two years’ time.

After making the first cut of applicants, Martin attended a rowing testing day, held at the Agecroft Rowing Centre in Manchester.

“It took a full day and was rigorous involving physical measurement, vertical jumps, strength and endurance tests on leg and arm bikes and static rowers,” explained Martin.

At just an inch taller than the required entry requirement, Martin was one of the smaller ‘giants’ selected in the campaign, fronted by Sir Steve Redgrave. Paul Cooper added: “When I drop him off he actually looks quite small compared to the other athletes.”

The final selection took place at the Sport England National Water Sports Centre at Nottingham. “The tests were a tough step up in competition from the Manchester event,” Martin said. “Vomit buckets were even supplied next to testing machines. They also includedŠon-water tests for co-ordination, and interview and presentation assessments for attitude and mental approach.”

The English Institute of Sport teamed up with UK Sport and the Olympic sports of rowing, handball and volleyball to identify tall athletes who could take part in the Olympics in five years’ time. Hopefuls also had to be between 16 and 25 years old, while female applicants were required to be 5ft 11in tall.

Chelsea Warr, UK Sport’s performance consultant, said: “The response we have had shows how much Olympic sport means to the British public.”

English Institute of Sport talent ID coordinator, Natalie Dunman, said the male rowers caught the eye in the Manchester preliminaries.

“The event went really well,” she said. “There was a visible step up in the competitiveness of the athletes taking part – which didn’t go unnoticed by the GB Rowing coaches. We got some exciting results – especially from the boys.”

Martin has now joined up with the rowing squad at the Manchester Centre, where he has been regularly training for five hours a day starting at 7am.

“I have been doing steady land and water training but now it is becoming a lot more intensive,” Martin explained. “It is tiring, but the coaches have a set-up so that I don’t over-train”

But he added: “I’ve been going to sleep a lot earlier!”