Coode won his first World Championship in 1999, as a substitute in the British men's coxless four, rowing withSteve Redgrave,Matthew Pinsent andJames Cracknell. WhenTim Foster returned to the four, Coode was put into the coxless pair withGreg Searle. They finished fourth at the2000 Sydney Olympics having led for most of the race and being overtaken by three crews in the last 600 m, finishing 12/100th of a second (about 2 feet) out of third place.
In 2001, he won a second World Championship in the men's coxless four withSteve Williams,Rick Dunn andToby Garbett. In 2002, he missed the World Championships due to injury,Josh West taking his place in the coxless four, and was in the men's eight in 2003 that won the bronze at that year's world championships.
With the injury toAlex Partridge, Coode was moved from the eight to the coxless four for the2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, rowing with Pinsent, Cracknell and Williams. In a close race with World champions Canada, they won gold.
In October 2004, Coode announced he was retiring from rowing – taking a year out to travel in South America and then study for a law degree atUniversity of the West of England in Bristol.[4] Following two years at university he spent two years as a trainee solicitor at Bristol firmBurges Salmon and returned to Cornwall, where his family has had business interests and owned land since the 19th century. He joined the family-founded law firm Coodes Solicitors and left in 2022 to run the estate management business. In 2025 he was appointed chair of theCountry Land and Business Association Cornwall branch.[5]
