SWEAT ME ENTERTAIN YOU
Robbie’s Take That stunt double is ready to make another big splash by claiming Euro glory in rowing
He has been watched more than 36million times on YouTube and was part of one of the 21st century’s biggest comebacks.
But Glasgow’s a chance for rower turned Robbie Williams’ body double Alan Sinclair to prove once again he isn’t an extra on the big stage.
The 32-year-old finished fourth in the men’s pair on his Olympic debut although it was a trip down the Thames eight years ago that remains his most-viewed moment.
Even if only a handful who saw it can pick him out.
Williams’ much-hyped return to Take That became official with the release of The Flood, one of the stranger music videos of our time as the five-piece, donning old-fashioned kits, rowed past London landmarks.
Only their oar skills were such that Sinclair and fellow members of the Leander Club, where he used to row, were called upon for those shots where a motor boat couldn’t be caught dragging them along.
While Take That may have slipped out of fashion, Sinclair is very much still in it as one of the older members of the GB rowing team bound for this week’s European Championships.
Not bad for a bloke from Inverness who declares he was “absolutely s***” in the water as a teenager.
Other members of the Leander Club were also relied upon for scenes in Facebook biopic The Social Network and Sinclair said: “I think I’m the only person who has gone from either video beyond national level.
“I was Robbie’s stunt double. If you watch on YouTube, the bits when you see the guy in his seat who obviously isn’t him, that’s me.
“The most surreal moment was rowing past Parliament with Gary Barlow sat behind us singing, ‘Row, row your boat.’ On occasion what they’d do is put the talent – the guys in the band – in the boat with us so they could get an idea of how to row.
“But when it was all five of them they had to get a motor boat behind to stabilise and push them forward.
“They basically weren’t rowing, they were just getting shunted along – which if you watch the video you can very much tell.
“The boat they rowed in was for four guys but they rigged it up so it was five – you never get a five. They made two of them because there was a boat they had to race against.
“At the end of the week the boat was sinking – it was really badly made.
“I’ve no idea why I was cast as Robbie. He was definitely a bit stockier than me when I last saw him. When we were filming it was all very hush, hush – no one knew about the band getting back together.”
Sinclair can also take credit for teaching former Doctor Who star Matt Smith for his role in BBC film Bert and Dickie, about two rowers who won gold at the 1948 Olympics.
And although big names such as Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent have put down their oars, he insists the sport is still full of stars.
Sinclair said: “We don’t have the Pinsent and Redgrave superstars, not because the talent isn’t there – it’s because there is a higher level of strength in depth so there is no one standing out above the crowd in the same way those two did.
“And that just makes the sport even better because it is more competitive.
“I was absolutely s**t as a kid but I loved it – I didn’t love being s**t but I loved the sport. I loved the feeling of improvement and never in a mil lion years would have thought I’d get to this level.
“But it was the appreciation for improving session to session, then getting a little bit closer to the kid who was five lengths ahead of me. I was getting to four lengths, to three lengths, at the next regatta. Then you
realise if I carry on at the same trajectory, until someone tells me, ‘ You’re going slower than you were last time’, then there is no limit to how far you can improve.
“I’ve improved my 2k by about a minute in the last eight years which is huge – it’s a ridiculous amount.”
It ’ s al l the more ridiculous considering the strain Sinclair put his body through to line up in Rio two years ago, only getting the nod 48 hours before kitting-out day.
Knowing he was one of the weaker guys on the team and training would stop for no one, he chose not to have a scan pre- Games on the right shoulder that had given him grief.
Only in January last year did he go under the knife, having been one step off the podium, a performance he refuses to pin on his ongoing struggle.
“I didn’t want something in the back of my head telling me, ‘You could be going faster’ because I wanted to go into Rio knowing I did everything I can do,” he said.
“I got a scan after the Olympics. It showed my arm was basical ly
hanging on mostly by muscle fibres rather than the joint itself.
“It was a pretty serious operation. I was in a sling for six weeks then had a huge amount of rehab.
“Now it’s not an issue at all and I can go into every training session with the trust in my shoulder.”
His first in GB trials in April proved as much as Sinclair sets about reiterating at Strathclyde Park he should be a first rather than a last pick at the Tokyo Olympics.
He said: “I didn’t show potential when I first joined the team in 2013 in the chief coach’s eye.
“He even said after Rio, ‘I honestly thought you would last maybe a couple of months but I didn’t think you’d last this long. Now you’re at an Olympics and have come away with a fourth place, which isn’t ideal but is incredible.’
“To hear I managed to persuade who is probably regarded as the most successful Olympic rowing coach in history to change his mind was one of the standout aspects of the last four years.”