Richard Tonks to receive the 2005 FISA Coach of the Year
Award
 Richard
Tonks, New Zealand’s acclaimed head coach, has been
selected by FISA, the International Rowing Federation, as
the 2005 FISA Coach of the Year.
Tonks coached the New Zealand team to a record breaking four
gold medals at this year’s World Rowing Championships,
when the women’s double, women’s pair, men’s
pair and men’s single sculls all topped the podium on
the same day, 3 September 2005 in Gifu, Japan.
In addition to this year’s World Championship titles,
Tonks coached the Evers-Swindell sisters to their Olympic
gold medal in Athens in 2004 and to World Championship golds
in 2003 and 2002. He was also the coach behind Rob Waddell’s
Sydney Olympic medal in 2000 as well as his two World Championship
titles in 1999 and 1998.
In addition, Tonks can lay claim to a number of other World
Championship gold, silver and bronze medals including Philippa
Baker and Brenda Lawson’s World Championship gold in
the women’s double sculls back in 1994.
Silver medallist in the 1972 Munich Olympics when he was
the stroke of the men’s four at the age of 19, Tonks
has been involved in rowing since he was 13. He became full
time Head Coach of the New Zealand team in 2000 after the
Sydney Olympic Games. He is married and has three children
and remains a fitness fanatic, still training actively in
the gym, on a bike or in his single scull.
The medal will be presented at the Gala Dinner of the 2005
World Rowing Forum in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday 5 November.
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