BOND Hamish

General
CYCLING SWITCH AND RETURN
In November 2016 he announced he would switch to competing in road cycling. He won bronze in the individual time trial at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, and also competed at the New Zealand national track cycling championships in 2019, setting a national record in the 4km individual pursuit. He returned to rowing in 2019. "I certainly had a sense of coming home when I first got back in the boat. Even though I hadn't rowed for two-and-a-half years, immediately there was just this feeling that I knew what I was doing. I looked at the various boat classes that I could be part of and the men's eight was the only thing that excited me in terms of training towards the [2020] Olympics. It's probably the one boat where historically New Zealand has had a lot of success, but in the last 20 years or so, when we've had a really good run of success, we just haven't quite been able to crack the Olympics. That was part of my motivation - I wanted to challenge myself." (odt.co.nz, 06 Jun 2020; stuff.co.nz, 05 Feb 2021; AeroCoach Facebook page, 14 Feb 2020; AeroCoach Facebook page, 07 Feb 2021; nowtolove.co.nz, 21 Dec 2019; cyclingnewzealand.nz, 07 Feb 2019)

UNBEATEN STREAK
He partnered Eric Murray in men's pair from 2009 to 2016. The partnership, dubbed 'The Kiwi Pair', won gold medals at the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016, captured seven world championship gold medals, and ended on a 69-race unbeaten streak in men's pair upon Murray's retirement in 2017. "Certainly rowing with Eric made me better. He challenged me physically every single day. Having him in the bow, I was having to hold one of the strongest people in world rowing straight for every stroke up and down the lake for every single day. I've rowed in pairs with other people where it felt like a walk in the park as they couldn't over-match me physically. I'd back myself in terms of consistency and applying myself to training, but once Eric was on the water, I never saw his head drop. There was never a training session which was too hard. There were more times that he had to pick me up in the boat than vice-versa." (stuff.co.nz, 01 May 2017; worldrowing.com, 08 May 2017; worldrowing.com, 29 Jun 2018)

FURTHER STUDIES
After completing a bachelor's degree in business studies and finance, he undertook a graduate diploma in personal financial planning at Massey University in New Zealand. (rowing.kiwi, 01 Sep 2019; forsythbarr.co.nz, 01 Apr 2018)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
He co-authored a book with former rowing partner Eric Murray and sports journalist Scotty Stevenson called 'The Kiwi Pair', which tells the story of their journey in the sport. Outside of rowing, he has worked in finance. (row2k.com, 06 May 2020; worldrowing.com, 8 Jan 2015)

In 2019, he was part of the Waiariki Rowing Club crew that was the first from New Zealand to win a men's eight event at the Henley Royal Regatta in England, when they triumphed in the Grand Challenge Cup. (rowingnz.kiwi, 01 Sep 2019; rowingnz.kiwi, 08 Jul 2019)