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Warren Cole

Warren Cole
Personal information
Birth name Warren Joseph Cole
Born (1940-09-12) 12 September 1940 (age 76)
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Residence Hamilton, New Zealand
Height 184 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 82 kg (181 lb)
Sport
Sport Rowing
Club Whakatane Rowing Club

Warren Joseph Cole (born 12 September 1940) is a former New Zealand rower who won an Olympic gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico.

Cole was born in 1940 at Palmerston North, New Zealand. He later lived in Whakatane and was a member of the Whakatane Rowing Club.

For the 1968 Summer Olympics, New Zealand qualified an eight and had a pool of four rowers and a cox as a travelling reserve; Cole was part of this reserve. Preparations were held in Christchurch at Kerr's Reach on the Avon River. The reserve rowers were unhappy with the "spare parts" tag and felt that they were good enough to perhaps win a medal if put forward as a coxed four. The manager, Rusty Robertson, commented about them that they were "the funniest looking crew you've ever seen". There were stern discussions with the New Zealand selectors. In a training run, the coxed four was leading the eight over the whole race. In the end, the reserve rowers got their way and New Zealand entered both the coxed four and the coxed eight. Cole won the Olympic coxed four event along with Dick Joyce, Dudley Storey, Ross Collinge and Simon Dickie (cox); this was New Zealand's first gold medal in rowing.

At the 1970 World Rowing Championships in St. Catharines in Canada, he won a bronze medal with the coxed eight. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich he competed again in the coxed four which finished sixth.

Cole worked for the National Dairy Association in marketing and sales. He later moved to Hamilton and sold equipment for the dairy industry.


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