Alfred's Story
1941 -
Alf Duval stroked Robert Shirlaw, Gary Pearce, John Ranch, David Douglas,
Peter Dickson, Joe Fazio, Michael Morgan and Alan Grover (cox) to the silver medal, behind West Germany, in the men’s eights at Mexico City 1968. This was the best performance by an Australian sweep-oared crew at the Olympic Games until the advent of the Oarsome Foursome at Barcelona 1992. The fast-finishing Australians just failed to catch the highly credentialed West Germans, after leaving other fancied crews, from the USSR and New Zealand, in their wake. The eight rowers from the victorious West German crew went on to carry the Olympic flag into the main stadium during the opening ceremony at Munich 1972.
Except for David Douglas, from Victoria, the crew came from the successful NSW outfit that won the 1968 King’s Cup. Duval was one of the six athletes, chosen by the Australian team management, to accompany the flag bearer, Eric Pearce from hockey, in the closing ceremony at Mexico City. Grover and Duval had their Olympic debuts in the coxed fours at Tokyo 1964.
