Zac making light of Olympic favouritism

9:30am Friday 8th August 2008

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ZAC Purchase is chilled out in China as he prepares for the biggest regatta of his life, starting with Sunday’s heats.

The 22-year-old World Cup champion starts as favourite for Olympic gold in the men’s lightweight doubles with Great Britain partner Mark Hunter.

But with GB rowers staying away from the teeming Olympic village at a hotel near the Shunyi rowing lake, the former King’s School, Worcester, student says: “We’ve been keeping it low key out here, training and relaxing.

“The Olympic regatta is what we’ve been preparing for for the last four years, but at the end of the day, it’s another 2km race, you’ve got to keep a lid on it.”

He’s keeping a lid on the tag of favourites as well.

“Not having lost a race this season makes us favourites, but I don’t like to use that word,” he added.

“It’s not an excuse, I’m not scared of being favourites because we’ve made ourselves top dogs by going unbeaten all year, it’s not something that’s crept up on us.

“From World Cup to World Cup, we’ve gone out to win and we’ve won, and that’s good.

“But there are plenty of good crews out there like the Danish world champions and if we make any mistakes, they are going to take advantage.

“It’s up to us to keep pushing our standards to a higher level.

“The objective is to come here and win this event. All the results so far have been bonuses on the way, they’re stepping stones, we know that. We’re excited by what we’ve done, but they’re just foundations for what’s to come.”

Looking relaxed beside the Olympic rowing lake, Purchase admitted a visit to the Olympic village left him stunned with thousands of athletes milling around the huge Beijing complex.

“Going round the village shocked me. They even have buses to get you to and from the dining hall!” he said.

“But If I’m honest, it doesn’t quite feel like the Olympics yet just here. At the end of the day, it’s a rowing course, it has lanes and it has a start line and a finish line. They’re all built pretty much the same.

“It’s a fantastic venue, a really good set-up. I’m sure when the crowds are here, there’s music blaring and you can’t hear yourself think, it will really catch up with me then.

“But here now, it’s nice sitting beside the lake with all the Beijing 2008 signs and the Olympic rings. I’m thinking it’s just another race and people are going to be trying to beat each other and hopefully we’re going to come out on top — that’s all that counts.

“We’ve gone back to basics since winning the World Cup in Poland, working on how we got to win the title by making sure we’ve gone right back to where we started and then built it back up from scratch to race pace.”

Like the rest of the GB team, Purchase won’t be attending today’s opening ceremony as it comes too close to racing.

“In the last week, we’ve been going well and now we’re just fine tuning, putting the training camp work from the last six weeks into race pieces and finalising our race plans — making sure it all comes together.”

He admits that victory in the opening heat isn’t the be-all and end-all, despite an unbeaten record in the three World Cup regattas this year.

“The main objective is to win a week on Sunday and as long as we do that, it won’t matter what we do this weekend. But we want to try and dominate the field from the off.”