Monday 6th December 2004
In a low-key announcement last Thursday (so low-key that the core British rowing press were not told about it), Alex Partridge began a new year-long sponsorship deal with online brokers InsureYourMotor.com. The backing helps Partridge cover the gap created by not having gone to the Olympics, after the shock of discovering he had a bilateral lung puncture at the end of June.
Alex is certainly a good logo-carrier for the insurance company. 
Their speciality is insuring young drivers, so Partridge fits the bill, though he may not entirely welcome their latest campaign to persuade young drivers to spend more on their insurance and less on buying a "cool" car. More usefully to them, his undoubted rowing potential, together with the dramatic way his summer unfolded following his sudden selection into the British coxless four in April, have put him high on the media list. In fact, since the team returned from Athens, Partridge has generated nearly as many column inches as most of the four, and more than his friend and erstwhile crew-mate, the self-effacing Olympic champion bowman Steve Williams.
This does put Partridge in an uncomfortable situation, which he is keenly aware of. Publicity will do his bank balance the power of good, and will hone the edge of his ambition to make the Beijing Olympics in Britain's top men's boat, but he knows it's not yet founded on a Pinsent-like career. "I haven't done anything yet", he said, "so we didn't want to make too much of this." Hence the tactfully sub-radar press conference.
In fact Partridge won his first senior world medal at the age of 20, and has been on the rise ever since. He was part of the bronze-by-a-whisker British coxed four in 2001 in Lucerne, then he and Dan Ouseley went on to join the eight for Seville 2002 (sixth) and Milan 2003 (bronze) before the 2004 GB assessments and trials reshuffled the entire squad. His trials win with Andy Hodge came as no surprise to British VIIIs coach Steve Gunn, who had watched him going well throughout last winter, and quietly predicted great things.
Back in the present day, Partridge's recovery is going well, though the doctors clearly don't want to test it too early after a rib fracture relapse during the autumn. "I'm fit, but I've been told I can't do trials until after December. I'm having to do all sorts of cross-training, I need to strengthen some areas", he said. "But I have been in a boat, I've been sculling and it's going pretty well. In fact I've been very happy with how quick I can go in the single, with how little training I've done so far."
Of course if he tires of sculling, he can always ring his club captain up and demand a bit of sweep action down in Henley. James 'Ferris Bueller's Year Off' Cracknell will be delighted to get back in a boat on stroke side again, and has promised to help keep Alex's spirits up by offering his services as an occasional pairs partner while so many British Olympians are training as part of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race squads.
From the Times last Friday, Partridge return to fitness helped by new backer.
© Copyright Rachel Quarrell 2004