OLYMPIC COACH PRAISED
A ROWING duo have hailed their Anglesey-born coach who fought cancer to help lead them to Olympic gold.
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning retained their Olympic title in the women’s pairs event, following-up on their success at 2012’s London games.
The members of Team GB described Robin Williams as “the best coach on the planet”, straight after their repeat success.
Robin, who grew up in Llandegfan near Menai Bridge, came through lifesaving surgery for bladder cancer two years ago and the two rowers are adamant that his brave battle has been their inspiration ever since.
“Without Robin we wouldn’t be the team we are,” said 31-year-old Army officer Stanning. “He’s 100% the third member in our boat. He’s the best coach in the world.”
Glover, 30, added: “People will think we’re exaggerating when we say how important our coach is.
“The first person we wanted to see was Robin because every stroke we took out there was down to him. He had a really bad illness during this Olympiad and you wouldn’t even know it. He was up coaching when he should have been in bed.
“His passion got us the gold in this event. Neither of us would doubt that for one second. It’s just all him, we couldn’t have done it without him. “There’s three of us – but it’s him.” Having grown up on Anglesey, before moving to South Wales as a teenager, Robin learned to row on the River Wye whilst at Monmouth School. He attended University College London where he joined the University of London Boat Club, juggling rowing with a career as an advertising manager for the Financial Times, later working in the Caribbean as a salvage diver.
A former chief Cambridge Boat Race coach, Williams took on the two rookie rowers six months before the 2010 world championships, and amazingly helped transform them into world silver medallists within six months. And after golden glory in London four years ago, the pair came into the Olympics on the back of a 36-race unbeaten streak, back to the 2011 world championships, where they finished second – feet off gold.
He was awarded an MBE in 2013 for services to rowing.
Before flying back from Rio on Monday, the beaming coach said: “I had cancer two years ago and that was a difficult time. It was January, so at least it wasn’t in the rowing season. The pair were a big, big part of my fight back.
“I didn’t lack drive to get better but it was an extra incentive.
“Now we’ve got to Rio 2016 and won I feel we have completely written the last chapter of the book with the best ending possible for all of us.”