Bob Cooper is an Australian former lightweight

rower Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars (called blades in the United Kingdom) are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are ...

. He was an Australian national champion and won a bronze medal at the

1978 World Rowing Championships The 1978 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 October to 5 November at Lake Karapiro near Cambridge, New Zealand. Twenty-eight countries were represented at the regatta. In the history of the World Ro ...

Club and state rowing

Raised in Adelaide, Cooper's senior rowing was from the Torrens Rowing Club. State representation first came for Cooper in 1965 in the South Australian lightweight four contesting the Penrith Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the

Australian Rowing Championships The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's pre ...

. He rowed in further South Australian Penrith Cup crews in 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, stroking the 1974 South Australian four. His 1970 crew was victorious breaking the long stranglehold held by Victoria and New South Wales in this event. In 1966 Cooper rowed in a composite South Australian eight contesting the lightweight eight title at the

Australian Championships The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held be ...

. In 1968 and again in 1974 in Torrens colours and rowing with Vaughan Bollen, Cooper won the national lightweight coxless pair title at the

.1974 Australian Championships
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International representative rowing

Cooper made his sole Australian representative appearance at the

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in the Australian men's lightweight eight. That crew won a bronze medal. Cooper at World Rowing
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Current life

Robert Cooper is now a rowing coach at

The Southport School The Southport School (TSS) is an independent Anglican early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school for boys, located in Southport, a suburb on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. Established in 1901 by the Revd Horac ...

, located on the Gold Coast and predominantly coaches eights. He is currently coaching the TSS Yr 11 1st VIII, rowing in the Jeremy King. The crew is as follows: Macdonald Chandler, Lachlan Frith, Tom Houlahan, Mason King, Toby Goffsassen, Rory Sampson, Sidney Bradnam, George Milson and Cox Samuel Sweetland. Placing 2nd at the annual Head of the River, at Wyaralong Dam with a time of 5:53.49, the crew has been expertly coached by the prestigious Cooper. Mr Cooper fondly remembers his favourite coached crew thus far, the 2020 TSS Open 2nd VIII - crew: Max Cook, Isaac Whitsed, Alec Turnbull, Oscar Billson, Lewis Cole, Zac Rossiter, Tom Schwerkolt and Cox Cameron Vele.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Bob Living people Australian male rowers World Rowing Championships medalists for Australia Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Australian sportsmen Rowers from Adelaide Sportsmen from South Australia