Rowing: Journey from fat boy to lean machine is worth the weight

In the gym of the Redgrave-Pinsent Lake at Caversham, as the whisper of rowing machines becomes a satisfying roar and the heaving of weights becomes ever more explosive, Olympic aspirations are being nurtured. Five years ago, Sam Townsend would no more have felt comfortable in such an elite environment than attending a session of Weight Watchers.

Surveying the vigour produced by the lean, muscled frame of the 6ft 6in 21-year-old, you can barely imagine that the Reading University student was once nearly 20 stone and clinically obese. Or, as Peter Shakespear, British rowing's talent-finder-in-chief, recalls his first sighting of him: "To be honest, when I first saw Sam I was a bit dubious. He was rotund.

"Yet his test scores were exceptional in the strength area. It was quite scary. They were similar to those you'd expect from highly trained athletes. As soon as you see that, you know you've got a rare one. Underneath that exterior, beneath that super-ficial fat layer, you knew there was a well-disguised athlete."

So it has proved, with Townsend being named for Great Britain in the quadruple scull for this year's world championships and Olympic qualifying regatta in Munich at the end of next month. London 2012 beckons; and hopefully Beijing too for a young man who was once in thrall to his brother Ben, a former Wycombe Wanderers footballer, but with whom he has now swapped places as the family's elite athlete.

If ever there was a story of inspiration to encourage those who are not naturally endowed with skills to prosper at the major national sports, this is it.

Shakespear, who as the sport's performance development manager is responsible for the Amateur Rowing Association's World Class Start scheme, sponsored by Siemens, adds: "There's almost certainly others around like that – but they don't know it. We're looking for people who can possibly win medals at 2012; people with outstanding potential. And we don't care where they come from."

Townsend, and others, including Alex Gregory, a crew-mate in the quad, Annie Vernon (women's quad) and Anna Bebbington (double scull), who have emerged through the scheme have given the lie to the theory that talent, in any sport, will inevitably rise to the surface. Sometimes it has to be distilled. "Someone like Steve Redgrave almost came along by accident," says Shakespear. "It was a collision between him, a good schoolteacher and a good coach. What we're trying to do is take out that randomness. Make it more scientific. We're looking for 10 Steve Redgraves, rather than just hoping that one will turn up by chance."

For five weekends, at five centres, starting yesterday, the search is on for potential Redgraves. And, yes, before you ask, it is highly discriminatory. Size matters. Boys need to be over 6ft 3in tall, girls over 6ft. They need to have long "levers" (arms and legs) to generate power.

As Shakespear says: "It is unashamedly elite. We're only talking about one in 10,000."

He adds: "Football, cricket and rugby tend to take the precocious talents. People like Wayne Rooney, whose talent was obvious right from when he was very young. Sam blossomed later in life. Our trick is to find those sleepers, if you like. Because they are out there."

One must stress that, as a 16-year-old, Townsend could never have been described as an overweight loafer. He played football, to county standard, and cricket. He smiles at the image of his frame then. "It wasn't that I ate really bad things," he maintains. "I come from quite a big family anyway and I like myfood. What I had served up fordinner were 'dad-type' portions."

When the testers came to his school, Chiltern Edge, near Reading, he was off ill that day. "Fortunately, my PE teacher took me down to Reading Rowing Club and made sure I got tested," he recalls. "I always knew that I was quite a strong guy. But it was nice to be told that I could be good at something like this."

Not that he was initially convinced about his new water-borne destiny. "I wasn't massively up for it at first," he concedes. "It was all so far away from what I had been doing that when the letter came through I thought, 'Hmmm?' I wasn't certain. The fact that I went to the interview was more because my mum was pushing me."

At his first rowing camp, his time on the ergo (rowing machine) beat that of the current British junior champion. "That told me that I might have something here," says Townsend. Since then, it has been a gradual process, a fact that has frustrated him at times. "I've always been massively competitive, and sometimes it's been my downfall. I get carried away in training. On ergos I always try to push the boundaries a little bit. I always think I know better. Two days later, I'll suffer for itbecause I've pushed too hard."

His self-belief has come under severe examination, mostly due to injury. "I played my last-ever cricket match and dislocated my kneecap and ripped my ligaments. I thought, 'Am I actually meant to do this?' I could have upped sticks and given up then, but, with the help of my coach, Mark Earnshaw, I stuck at it."

Shakespear, an Australian who was formerly a coach of that country's women's rowing crews, and who is married to Wilma, national director of the English Institute of Sport,admits: "Sam was a bit rocky to start with. Flexibility is very poor with late-maturing athletes, particularly with people of immense strength. They can injure themselves. It would have been easy to discard him because of those injuries. But we knew he had immense potential."

For Townsend, his success has justified many sacrifices."Before, I was normal, if you like. I now like the feeling of being abnormal," he says. "Not many people can do this. Knowing what I have achieved, I'd have been pretty pissed off if I'd have given up on the way... but it certainly hasn't been an easy road to where I've arrived."

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