Alexander Matthew Partridge (born 25 January 1981 in San Francisco) is a British rower, and an Olympic silver and bronze medallist.[1]
Education
Partridge started rowing at Monkton Combe School, Bath, and attended Oxford Brookes University to study Technology Management. Double Olympic champion Steve Williams, with whom Partridge won two world titles attended both the same school, and the same university, as did Rowley Douglas – cox of the British Rowing 8 at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
International rowing career
Partridge first made his mark at senior level in 2001. Having won a silver medal in the four at the World U23 Championships with Christopher Martin, Henry Adams and Dan Ouseley, the crew met the standard to gain selection for the coxed four at the senior World Championships in Lucerne. Having reached the final, they proved to be particularly strong in the final 500 m, rowing through the field to snatch the bronze medal on the line.
In 2002 and 2003 Alex raced in the Eight; the crew finished 6th at the World Championships, but stepped up in 2003 to win a bronze medal.
In 2004, Partridge won the GB Rowing Senior Selection Trials in the pair with Andrew Triggs Hodge. This proved a headache for the selectors who had already shuffled the previous year's crews considerably, in the wake of Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell's disappointing 4th place in the pair in Milan. Until the trials Pinsent and Cracknell had been training in a four with Steve Williams and Josh West, but following the unexpected trials result replaced West with Partridge. Hodge remained in the Eight. However, following the World Cup in Lucerne, Partridge was diagnosed with a collapsed lung and had to withdraw from the Athens Olympics; he was replaced in the coxless four by Ed Coode,[2] and the crew went on to win the Olympic final beating the Canadian 4- by just 0.08 seconds. Patridge, however, was first across the line; the crew had named their boat after him.
In 2005 Partridge returned to full fitness and regained his place in the men's four with Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and Williams, winning gold in the World Cups at Eton, Munich and Lucerne and capping the season by taking gold in the World Championships in Japan. The 2006 World Cup brought further success with gold in all of the World Cup events in Munich, Poznań and Lucerne and another World Championship victory in front of their home supporters at Dorney Lake, Eton.
The 2007 season proved to be far more disappointing; the previously unbeaten four was hit by injury, and although the full line up raced at the World Championships, they finished 4th – in startling contrast to their dominance of the previous two years.
In 2008, Partridge was replaced in the coxless four by quadruple Cambridge Blue Tom James. Instead Partridge spent the season in the Eight, winning a silver medal in the Olympic final in Beijing.[3]
He returned to the men's Four in 2009 and won gold at the World Championships in Poznań on 29 August 2009 alongside Matt Langridge, Alex Gregory and Ric Egington. He was part of the British squad that topped the medal table at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, where he won a silver medal as part of the eight with Nathaniel Reilly-O'Donnell, Cameron Nichol, James Foad, Moe Sbihi, Greg Searle, Tom Ransley, Daniel Ritchie and Phelan Hill.[4]
At the 2012 London Summer Olympics, Partridge won bronze in the men's eight event. The race was very close, with Great Britain taking the lead at the 1000 m mark, but lost the lead to Germany and then ended up finishing in the bronze medal position due to a late charge by Canada.
Partridge's bronze Olympic medal was stolen while in London at a night club in October 2012.[5]
