Ante Kušurin (born 9 June 1983) is a Croatian rower, who specialized in the double scull event. He is a two-time medalist at the World Junior Rowing Championships and also a member of the

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Rowing career

Kusurin started out his sporting career as a basketball player, until he encouraged by his friends to try out for rowing at the age of fourteen. He won two medals for the double sculls at the World Junior Rowing Championships, and also, attained multiple top-ten finishes at the World Under-23 Regatta and at the World Rowing Cup series. Realizing that he needed funding and a full-time career, Kusurin applied for a full scholarship and took up a business degree in finance at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

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. While attending college, he discovered competitive rowing and power training, and suddenly became a full-fledged member of the Washington Huskies Rowing Club. He also served as the captain of the rowing team, and captured numerous gold medals for his collegiate crew at the Pac-10 Rowing Championships, the Windermere Cup, and the San Diego Crew Classic. Although he played for the Washington Huskies during his collegiate career, Kusurin continued to row in his national senior squad annually. After graduating from the University of Washington in 2007, Kusurin attended the

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Saïd Business School, where he became a member of the

Oxford University Boat Club Oxford University Boat Club (OUBC) is the rowing club for male, heavyweight oarsman of the University of Oxford, England, located on the River Thames at Oxford. The club was founded in the early 19th century. The Boat Race The club races agai ...

. He participated twice in The Boat Race, in

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and

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, along with top-class rowers including Great Britain's Colin Smith and New Zealand's

George Bridgewater George Spencer Bridgewater (born 18 January 1983) is a former New Zealand rower who competed in the pair at international level with Nathan Twaddle. The pair began representing New Zealand together in 2004 and won bronze medals at the 2008 Su ...

, an Olympic bronze medalist in the coxless pair.

Olympics

Kusurin represented

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

the

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, where he and his partner Mario Vekić competed for the men's double sculls. The pair directly qualified for the semi-final A/B rounds, after finishing second in the heats, with a time of 6:27.38. Shortly before the rowing competition, Kusurin and Vekic were involved in a bus accident, which killed three Chinese nationals and injured several Australian delegates and their coach Dragutin Milinkovic. While their coach was rushed to a nearby hospital around Beijing, the pair went off to the competition and rowed strongly for a fourth-place finish in the semi-final round, with a fastest possible time of 6:24.89. Few hours later, Kusurin and Vekic missed out of the final B round, and automatically finished in twelfth overall position. The

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC) and the

International Rowing Federation World Rowing, also known as the World Rowing Federation (former abbreviation FISA; french: Fédération internationale des sociétés d'aviron), is the international governing body for rowing. Its current president is Jean-Christophe Rolland who ...

(FISA) had also rejected an appeal sent by the Croatian Olympic Committee (HOO) to include the pair as a seventh scull in the final race.

References

External links

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Profile – Washington Huskies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kusurin, Ante Croatian male rowers Living people Olympic rowers for Croatia Rowers at the 2008 Summer Olympics People from Nova Gradiška 1983 births Oxford University Boat Club rowers Alumni of Kellogg College, Oxford Alumni of Saïd Business School