Rowing coach swaps Canterbury NZ for Cambridge UK

Media Release: 24 March 2005

Acclaimed rowing coach swaps Canterbury, NZ for Cambridge, UK

Former rowing international Duncan Holland has been appointed the new chief coach at the Cambridge University Boat Club.

One of the most prestigious coaching positions in Britain, the university’s rowers are most famous for their annual participation in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, which is being held this Sunday, 27th March.

Duncan Holland, born in the UK but brought up in New Zealand, has been coaching the sport since 1981. His latest role has seen him coaching the St Margarets College rowing team at Kerrs Reach in Christchurch. His career has also taken him to Holland and Switzerland, where he held coaching positions at a national level.

Duncan Holland unfortunately missed out on an Olympic appearance due to the boycott of the Moscow Olympics. He rowed for New Zealand from 1973 until 1980.

He has left New Zealand well prepared for university life. Owing to the pressures of rowing at an international level – when most of his contemporaries were at university – Duncan studied at Lincoln University as a mature student and completed his BCom in Economics and Quantitative Marketing in 1990. He paid for his studies by coaching rowing at the same time.

Duncan Holland’s role as chief coach of the Cambridge University Boat Club means he will be responsible for all aspects of the development of crews. He takes over the position in April, so will be keeping a close eye of his future team’s performance on Sunday (Monday NZ time) when the two teams take to The Thames River in London.

“My goal as chief coach is very simple – it’s for us to win the Boat Race. The reason the Cambridge University Boat Club exists is to race Oxford. Cambridge has won nine of the last 12 Boat Races. The crew is mostly new each year because of the pressures of studying,“ says Duncan Holland.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge,” he concludes.

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