Matthew Wells (rower)
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | British | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
19 April 1979 Bradford, England | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Hexham, England | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 189 cm (6 ft 2 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 92 kg (203 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Men's rowing | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Double Sculls | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Leander Club | |||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Matthew Wells (born 19 April 1979) is a British Olympic rower. He has competed in multiple Olympic Games and World Championships, and won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Biography
Wells was born in Bradford and grew up in Hexham, where he learnt to row at Queen Elizabeth High School [1]
In 1996 he won the single sculls at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, and won gold in the double sculls at the World Junior Championships in 1997. He took bronze at the World U23 Championships in 1999, after missing out on competition for a year due to injury.
In 2000, he took gold in the single at the World U23 championships, then represented Great Britain at the 2000 Olympic Games, finishing in ninth.
In 2003, Wells came fifth in the World Championships in Milan in the men's double with Ian Lawson. In 2004, he competed at Olympic Games with Matthew Langridge in the double, narrowly missing out on the final but winning the B final to finish seventh.
Transferring to the quadruple sculls in 2005, he won a bronze in the World Cup at Lucerne, the first world-level medal by a GB men's quad. This crew then finished 7th in the World Championships.
He then returned to the double sculls, claiming bronze at the 2006 World Championships held at Dorney Lake, Eton, UK,[2] but finished 4th in 2007. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Wells and Stephen Rowbotham took Britain's first men's Olympic sculling medal since 1976, winning bronze in the men's double sculls.[3]
He became the director of rowing at Monkton Combe School, near Bath in 2012. At the 2012 Summer Olympics he was part of the British quadruple sculls team that finished 5th.[4]
References
- ↑ British Rowing biography
- ↑ BBC News 26 August 2006
- ↑ BBC News 16 August 2008
- ↑ http://www.olympic.org/olympic-results/london-2012/rowing/quadruple-sculls-without-coxsw-m