Zac Purchase Athlete
Zachary Jake Nicholas 'Zac' Purchase MBE (born 2 May 1986) is an English rower. Born in Cheltenham, Purchase started rowing in 1999 at the King's School, Worcester. He competed at the Junior World Rowing Championships in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 he competed on the World Cup circuit in the lightweight men's single sculls, finishing fourth at Dorney Lake and second at Munich-Oberschleissheim. Purchase became under-23 world champion at the 2005 world U-23 championships at Amsterdam, before taking silver at the 2005 World Rowing Championships at Gifu, Japan. In 2006, Purchase continued in the lightweight men's single and won his first World Cup event at Lucerne, before becoming the World Champion at the 2006 World Rowing Championships at Dorney Lake setting a new World Record. In 2007 he partnered Mark Hunter in the Great Britain Lightweight Men's Double Scull. They medalled at each World Cup Regatta through the season. At the World Rowing Championships in Munich-Oberschleissheim they won a Bronze medal. The following year, their double dominated the lightweight event, winning all of their races, and finishing the season as Olympic champions in Beijing, setting a new Olympic Record. After a year off in 2009, he and Hunter won Gold at the 2010 World Championships at Lake Karapiro in New Zealand. Purchase was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours for services to sport and collected his award in June of that year. Purchase has also recently become engaged to long term partner Felicity Hill, also a former pupil and rower at the King's School, Worcester where they met.
