Purchase excited by golden chance (From Worcester News)

Purchase excited by golden chance

5:00pm Friday 3rd August 2012 in Sport

ZAC Purchase revealed his own quirky analysis of pressure after reaching the lightweight men’s double scull final at London 2012 with Mark Hunter — and he has vowed to put it to good use tomorrow.

As the defending Olympic champions, there is a weight of expectation on the shoulders of Purchase and Hunter but, despite an unspectacular year to date, they have looked good at Eton Dorney.

Even though they did not progress fastest into the semi-finals, they still won their heat, while in qualifying for the final yesterday they were again victorious in the second quickest time of six minutes 36.62 seconds.

Danish duo Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist posted the best time on both occasions but Purchase insists he feels nothing but excitement ahead of his Olympic title defence.

“Pressure is just excitement you can’t control so we are just really excited,” said the former King’s School Worcester pupil.

“We knew this Olympic final would be a lot closer than the last one as there are some great crews.

“We know that when we get out to that start line it will be really tight and it is up to us to put together the best race we can.

“The French have shown really good form, the New Zealand guys have been there or thereabouts and the Danes pipped them again in the semi-finals.

“We know what we have to do. It is a case of executing it and putting into practice the last six weeks of training.”

Rasmussen and Quist are not running away with the competition as their time from the semi-finals was less than four-10ths of a second better than the Brits.

Purchase and Hunter have two things the Danes don’t, though, for tomorrow morning’s final — the backing of a vocal home support and team-mates who have Olympic gold already around their necks.

The women’s pair of Heather Stanning and Helen Glover became the first British gold medallists of London 2012 on Wednesday and Purchase couldn’t ask for better inspiration.

“We have never been anywhere and been clapped while doing our warm-up so that is a completely new experience and one we are really enjoying,” he added. “The girls on Wednesday inspired us so much. “It was an amazing result. The whole team were watching it together and the enthusiasm from everyone was huge.”

Lloyds TSB, proud supporter of Team GB and proud partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Get closer to the Games at lloydstsb.com/london2012.