British rowing mourns cox Nethercott, dead at 35

Senior figures from the world of British rowing paid tribute to Acer Nethercott following the Olympic silver medal-winning cox's death at the age of 35.

His death, following a recent illness, was confirmed on Sunday and GB Rowing performance director David Tanner paid tribute to Nethercott, who coxed the British men's eight to silver at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing by saying: "It is very sad news.

"Acer was the top British cox of his time. He coxed our excellent silver medal winning eight at Beijing 2008.

"He had an exceptional period with the GB Rowing Team until illness in the past Olympiad."

Nethercott made his name in rowing as a cox with the Oxford University crew in three Boat Races, winning in both 2003 and 2005.

Garry Herbert, the Olympic gold medal-winning cox from Barcelona 1992, was one of several who used Twitter to mourn Nethercott's passing.

He tweeted: "A privilege to have known him, he lived up to the meaning of his name in every way."

And double Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell said: "Weekend of sporting upsets put into perspective by terrible passing of Acer Nethercott."