Darren Whiter

Darren has been selected as crew coach for the lightweight men's double scull for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games where they won a gold medal.

Darren has been the ARA's High Performance Coach for U23s since 1999. He first realised his potential as a coach at the 1997 World Junior Championships in Hazewinkel where he coached the boys' double scull of Matthew Wells and James Di Luzio to a gold medal. Since then he has coached six boats to Championship Gold.

Soon after this he left his job as a Physical Training Instructor with the Metropolitan Police to become the full time professional coach at the University of London. Two years later Darren joined the ARA's staff to work with the U23's squad.

During this time he coached Matt Wells to World U23 Gold and in the same year, 2000, he took him to a creditable 9th place at the Olympic Games in Sydney.

Darren's speciality has been working with young single scullers. In 2002 he coached Matt's younger brother Peter to World U23 Gold and in 2005 he took 19 year old Zac Purchase to the Lightweight U23 title. In the same year Zac won silver at the World Championships and in 2006 became World Lightweight Singles Champion in a World's best time – in front of his home crowd in Eton.

In 2007, Darren combined his work with the U23 pathway with coaching Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter to a bronze medal in the Olympic Class Lightweight Double at the World Championships in Munich.