News from Alumni
Silver Medal for Newington Olympian James Chapman
After sending the ‘heads up’ SMS message to the full Newington Community to watch the Men’s Coxless Four final at the 2012 Olympics last Saturday night, it was a united school community that willed James Chapman (ON’97) and his crew to give it their all as they pushed the British crew all the way down the beautiful Eton course.
Always a two crew race the Australians battled crosswinds but rowed an extraordinary race to take the Silver. We are so proud of James and will bring you a full Olympic summary in the Spring edition of News.
From the Archives
Newington’s first Olympian was Nigel Chase Barker, who attended the College from 1894 to 1901. He was an outstanding athlete while at school, winning the College Cup (now the Warry Cup) as Athletics Champion two years in a row, and many events at GPS, State and Commonwealth schoolboy championships. Three of his trophies are in the College Archives.
Barker was also an outstanding rugby player, playing in the 1st XV four years in a row (our photo shows him in the 1899 team). Having played for the University of Sydney and for New South Wales, he was selected for the 1907 Wallabies tour of the UK but elected to stay in Australia to finish his studies.
It was a rugby injury that prevented Barker from competing in the 1904 Olympics in St Louis. The following year, however, he became the first Australian to hold a recognised world record in athletics when he ran the 440yds in 48.5 seconds.
A public subscription enabled Barker to compete at the 1906 Olympics in Athens. Representing ‘Australasia’ (New Zealand did not have a separate team at this period) he won Bronze medals in the 100 and 400 metre races. The 400 was a controversial race: the winning time, by an American who not a member of the official USA team, was five seconds slower than Barker’s times in Australia and Barker was subjected to severe interference during the race.
