KEY POINTS:
Olympic coach Chris Nilsson has left Rowing New Zealand (RNZ) to become chief coach at Cambridge University in England.
Nilsson coached the men's coxless four and the men's double sculls combination of Rob Waddell and Nathan Cohen at last month's Olympics in Beijing, where both crews finished out of the medals.
Nilsson's move to England follows the appointment of Dick Tonks as RNZ's head coach, the Waikato Times newspaper reported.
Tonks oversaw the gold-medal winning effort of the women's double sculls team of Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell at Beijing, repeating their triumph at Athens in 2004.
The Cambridge University Boat Club has a strong history of New Zealand coaches, with Duncan Holland holding down the chief coaching position until his departure this year while the late Harry Mahon also previously held the role.
Nilsson, who rowed for New Zealand at the 1972 Olympics, has previously had a spell as assistant coach of Oxford University.
He had been with RNZ for four years.
He coached the New Zealand men's coxless four of Hamish Bond, Eric Murray, James Dallinger and Carl Meyer to gold at the world championships in Germany last year, and got the Cambridge job ahead of over 60 candidates.
He becomes the second high-profile departure from RNZ's ranks in just over a month after high performance manager Andrew Matheson was appointed national high performance director for Rowing Australia.
- NZPA
