the British Empire (MBE) in the 1973 New Year Honours. Over time, coach Robertson, manager Rowlands, and then the team as a whole were inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. Background There were expectations for the New Zealand eight to win a medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, but the team came fourth and this was regarded as a failure. The situation was the opposite for the other New Zealand boat in Mexico. The coxed four was technically a spare, the crew had travelled to be available as a reserve for the eight team. The coxed four won an unexpected gold medal. Getting the amateur rowers to Mexico had required a massive fund-raising exercise and the New Zealand rowing association was in no position to send rowers to any international regattas in 1969, but targeted the 1970 World Rowing Championships in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. At the time, the eight was seen as the most important boat class, and three from the Mexico eight trained for the 1970 world championships: Wybo Veldman, John Hunter, and Gil Cawood. Most of the crew of the 1968 coxed four made another four members: Warren Cole, Dick Joyce, Dudley Storey, and cox Simon Dickie. The team was complemented by experienced sculler Murray Watkinson and a young Gary Robertson. Ross Collinge from the Mexico coxed four had attended the trials but missed selection. After having won both its heat and the semifinal in Canada (beating the Soviet Union and West Germany in the latter), the boat came third. East Germany dominated, and the Soviet Union was a mere 0.2 seconds ahead the New Zealand boat. The team did not gel, and Watkinson's selection became regarded as a mistake; as a single sculler, he had become used to "doing his thing in his own time". The officials at the time were Rusty Robertson as coach, Don Rowlands as manager, fund-raiser and organiser, and Fred Strachan as strategist. The coach was the uncle of the youngest crew member, Gary Robertson. Robertson had been appointed coach in 1967 and it was then that the national training centre relocated from Auckland to Christchurch, under great controversy. Kerrs Reach on Christchurch's Avon River was more convenient to reach for Dunedin-based Strachan than Auckland, and coach Robertson embarked on a daily drive from Oamaru—a return journey–after work whenever there was a training day. 1971 European