This is history in the making

Matthew Langridge has achieved what nobody else from Northwich has previously, and won a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

If it’s taken until now for an athlete to win on the biggest stage of all, then who knows how long the wait might be for it to happen again?

Or, if it ever will.

Shirley Strong, a sprint hurdler from Cuddington, returned from Los Angles in 1984 with silver.

A further two decades passed before Langridge, then 21, made his debut at an Olympic regatta in a double with Matt Wells at Athens.

At the risk of stating the obvious, it doesn’t happen often.

A local boy done good

While at Hartford High School Langridge, a keen swimmer, decided to give a different sport a try at Northwich Rowing Club.

He was living around the corner at the time.

“I enjoyed it, so I kept going down,” he said.

“It made me happy, so naturally I wanted to spend more time there.

“I was having fun as well, and they encouraged me to improve.”

There will be plenty of people in the crowd on Saturday able to say ‘I went to the same school as him,’ or ‘He lived near me.’

Langridge really is a local lad done good.

Legacy: oft-used word, but seldom realised

Politicians mention legacies often when they discuss sport, although rarely do they know what it means.

Or if they do, how to make it happen.

Inspiration, aspiration perhaps, is a better word.

Matthew Langridge has proved what is possible; a talented athlete from Northwich can reach the pinnacle of their chosen sport.

If Northwich Rowing Club wasn’t already on the map – although within their chosen sport they most certainly are – then they undoubtedly are now.

The 33-year-old has talked regularly about how his first coach, Paul Rafferty, and other volunteers there played a pivotal part in setting him on a course for where he ended up – a winner – in Rio.

It’s not just about rowing (or sport for that matter)

Langridge’s achievement is not a reason for every child to clamber into a boat, although Northwich Rowing Club’s reputation for nurturing international-standard rowers is not solely down to what he has done.

Others have followed; Ed Grisedale, Lucy Burgess, George Lawton and Beth Willford-Dutton to name the most recent examples.

But there are other clubs in the town, with talented and committed coaches, who are working with youngsters too.

Why not give them a try?

Saturday is not just about sport though; local pride, and celebrating ‘one of our own’ is important too.

The population of Northwich is larger than ever, and the town’s landscape is changing before our eyes, but it’s all too rare for us to have a chance to truly come together.

Langridge is not just any athlete

Saturday is about him, and rightly so.

Langridge won gold on his most recent Olympics appearance in Brazil, but that is not his only success.

His latest medal is his third after returning from Beijing with a silver one in 2008, then adding bronze in London four years later.

He is also a two-time world champion at senior level, and added a European title to his collection in 2015.

Few athletes in any sport, not just rowing, compete at four successive Olympic Games.

He has realised the promise shown as a teenager, something many are unable to do.

With that in mind, he will always have a place in British rowing history as the first to win gold in a single scull at the world junior championships back in 2001.