Eric Verdonk
Eric Franciscus Maria Verdonk (born May 28, 1959 in Taihape ; † April 3, 2020 ) was a New Zealand rower who reached the Olympic final in the 1988 and 1992 singles .
Life
Verdonk was the son of Dutch parents who came to New Zealand in 1953. He began rowing at Westlake Boys' High School in Auckland and in 1973 he joined the North Shore Rowing Club in Auckland. But it wasn't until 1986 that he won his first national championship title. At the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh he finished third in the single behind the Briton Steven Redgrave and the Australian Richard Powell , in the double scull Verdonk reached fourth place. At the rowing world championships in 1987 Verdonk took sixth place in the one. A year later he also reached the final at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and won the bronze medal behind the two German rowers Thomas Lange and Peter-Michael Kolbe . Two years later, Verdonk won another bronze medal at the 1990 World Championships on Lake Barrington, Tasmania, behind the Estonian Jüri Jaanson and Václav Chalupa from Czechoslovakia, who were still starting for the Soviet Union . After a fifth place at the 1991 World Rowing Championships in Vienna, Verdonk reached the final again at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and fought for bronze with Kajetan Broniewski from Poland behind Lange and Chalupa, who crossed the finish line 63 hundredths of a second before Verdonk.
Verdonk worked alongside and after his career as a boat builder, after twenty years he switched to an insurance office. In addition, he remained active as a rower in the master classes.
He died of complications from cancer.
New Zealand championship title
- One: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993
- Double sculls: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994
- Quadruple: 1991
- Two without: 1986
Web links
- Eric Verdonk in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
- Portrait the New Zealand Olympic Committee (English)
- Eric Verdonk at Worldrowing.com ( FISA database )
Individual evidence
- ^ Rowing at the Commonwealth Games ( Memento from November 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Men's single sculls - 1990 World Championships - Tasmania Lake Barrington, Australia. In: www.worldrowing.com. World Rowing Association, accessed on February 2, 2016 (English).
- ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. Die Chronik IV. Seoul 1988 - Atlanta 1996. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-328-00830-6 , p. 500.
- ↑ "Rowing Olympic medalist Eric Verdonk dies following cancer battle" on stuff.co.nz from April 3, 2020 (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Verdonk, Eric |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Verdonk, Eric Franciscus Maria |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | New Zealand rower |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 28, 1959 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Taihape |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 3, 2020 |