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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Darren Bruce Balmforth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 16 October 1972 (1972-10-16) (age 53) Hobart, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Lindisfarne Rowing Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Darren Bruce Balmforth (born 16 October 1972 inHobart) 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 atRose 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 theAustralian 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 lightweightdouble scull at the 1994World 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 the1994 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. AtAiguebelette 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] ForCologne 1998 and then atSt Catharine's 1999 Balmforth rowed in the Australian coxless four withAnthony Edwards,Bob Richards and the Tasmanian championSimon Burgess. That four took bronze in 1998 and silver in 1999.[3]
That same lightweightcoxless four stayed together for theSydney 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 ofthe regatta and won Balmforth Olympic silver in his last Australian representative appearance.[5]
On 16 January 2001, Balmforth was awarded theAustralian Sports Medal for services to Olympic Sport and Rowing.[6] In 2010 he was inducted to the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame.[1]
