Russell Robertson , known as Rusty Robertson, was a New Zealand-born, world class rowing coach of New Zealand and later, Australian national representative rowing crews. He was the national rowing coach of New Zealand from 1967 to 1976, and the national coach of Australia from 1979 to 1984.
Early life
Robertson was born in 1927. He was from Oamaru in Otago and commenced rowing at the age of 16 at the Oamaru Rowing Club. A serious car accident broke his back and forced a premature retirement from rowing and an early start to coaching. He coached Oamaru crews for many years and was Club Captain for a decade. At long, his home town has the shortest rowing course in the country, and Robertson devised a training method by which rowers would use one arm only and go round and round in circles.
Relocating to Sydney Robertson took on a senior coaching role at the Drummoyne Rowing Club. He was involved in schoolboy coaching with the Sydney Grammar School and was in charge in 1978 when Grammar eights took both the 1st and 2nd VIII titles at the GPS Head of the River following a 22 year drought. Robertson coached Drummoyne rowers and scullers, lightweight and heavyweight in competition for national titles at the Australian Rowing Championships from 1978. He was coach of New South Wales state senior eights competing in the Interstate Eight-Oared Championship in 1979, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988. Robertson was Australia's national rowing coach from 1979 to 1984. He coached the Australian men's lightweight coxless four to World Championship victories in 1980 and 1981. The crew consisted of his Drummoyne clubmen Graham Gardiner and Clyde Hefer who throughout 1980 had vied for top national honours against the Victorian pair of Charles Bartlett and Simon Gillett. New Australian National Director of Coaching Reinhold Batschi had introduced a small boat racing selection methodology and the choice of the two competitively matched pairs to comprise the Australian IV was clear. The crew took the gold medal and won Australia's second lightweight World Championship title. The following year the same crew raced at the 1981 World Rowing Championships in Munich and successfully defended their title. In 1983 he coached the Australian men's lightweight eight consisting of Victorian, Tasmanian and West Australian oarsmen to a silver medal at Duisberg 1983. For the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the men's eight coach was one of the first appointments to be determined. Robertson was the prominent men's coach at the time but the appointment went to Roberston's boss Reinhold Batschi, National Coaching Director though not an active coach at the time. Robertson took the men's quad scull and coached them to a silver olympic medal.
Death and legacy
Robertson died aged 63 on 17 February 1990, after collapsing while coaching from the banks of the Nepean River. A Rusty Robertson Cup regatta is held annually in Australia. The New South Wales Rowing Association awards 'the Rusty Robertson MBE Award for services to rowing'. Their by-law reads:
