| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Darren Bruce Balmforth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 16 October 1972 (age 50) Hobart, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Lindisfarne Rowing Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
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]
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]
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]
Anthony John Edwards is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is a five time Olympian, triple Olympic medallist, a world champion and a six-time Australian national champion. He represented Australia at the premier world regattas consistently over a twenty-year period from 1993 to 2012.
Stephen Mark Hawkins OAM is an Australian former national champion, World Champion and Olympic gold medal winning lightweight rower.
Simon Burgess is an Australian national champion, two-time World Champion, three-time Olympian and dual Olympic silver medal-winning lightweight rower. He represented Australia ten times at World Rowing Championships between 1990 and 2002. He won world and national championships in both sculls and in sweep-oared boat classes during an eighteen-year elite level career.
Glen Loftus is an Australian former lightweight rower. He was a national champion, an U23 world champion and an Olympic silver medalist. In competitive retirement he was a coach and a rowing administrator in Western Australia.
Benjamin Cureton is an Australian former lightweight rower. He was an eight-time national champion, a world champion and a three-time Olympian. He won his world championship in the men's lightweight fours, and an Olympic silver medal in that boat class in Athens 2004. He competed at two further Olympics in this discipline. For a twelve-year period from 2001 – excepting 2009 and 2010 – Cureton held his seat in all the Australian lightweight coxless fours selected to race at the premier world regattas.
Robert Richards is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is a former world champion, an Olympic silver medallist and a national champion. In the four years he rowed for Australia at the premier world regatta he won a medal each time.
Bruce Hick is an Australian national champion, three time World Champion and dual Olympian lightweight rower. He represented Australia over a fifteen-year period and rowed at ten World Rowing Championships.
Rebecca Susan Joyce is an Australian former rower, a sculler in the lightweight division. She was a five-time national champion, a 1995 world champion and Olympic medal winner.
Rebecca Sattin is an Australian rower, a two time World Champion and Olympic medal winner. She had success at the elite world level as both a sculler and a sweep-oared rower.
Samuel Beltz is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is a 16-time national champion, a world champion and dual Olympian. He competed at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics and represented Australia at the premier world class regattas over a fifteen-year period from 1999 to 2014.
Paul Anthony Thompson MBE is an Australian elite level rowing coach and former rower. As a rower he was an Australian under-age champion, won a silver medal at the 1985 U23 World Championships and rowed in senior King's Cup eights for both South Australia and New South Wales. He has coached Australian and British crews to World Championship titles and Olympic medals including taking Kate Slatter and Megan Still to Australia's first women's Olympic rowing gold at Atlanta 1996. By 2012 he was Great Britain's head coach for women and lightweights and took British crews to three gold and two silver medals at London 2012. Since 2022 he has been Rowing Australia's High Performance Director.
Thomas Gibson is an Australian lightweight rower. He is a twelve-time Australian national champion, a world champion and a dual Olympian.
Gary Lynagh is an eleven time Australian national champion, three time World Champion and Olympian lightweight rower. He represented Australia at every premier international regatta from 1990 to 1998.
Rob Mitchell is an Australian lightweight rower. He is a former world champion and an Australian national champion. He won a gold medal at the 1997 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette with the lightweight men's eight.
Blair Tunevitsch is an Australian former lightweight rower – a five time national champion and world champion. He won a gold medal at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled with the lightweight men's eight.
Alister Foot is an Australian world champion lightweight rower. He won a gold medal at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled in the lightweight men's eight.
Sarah Heard is a former Australian representative rower. She was a twelve-time Australian national and 2005 world champion. She stroked the Australian senior women's eight at the premier world regattas every year from 2005 to 2008 and including the women's eight final at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Deon Birtwistle is an Australian lightweight rower. He was three times a national champion, an U23 World Champion and a silver medallist at the 2003 World Championships. He continued to compete at the national elite level into his 40s.
Andrew Butler is an Australian former representative lightweight rower. He was a two time Australian national champion, and won a bronze medal at the 2000 World Rowing Championships.
Sam Waley is a Tasmanian-born Australian former representative lightweight rower. He won a bronze medal at the 2004 World Rowing Championships.
