HTBS was reached with sad news from London this morning, where Tim Koch in a short e-mail writes about Olympic silver medal-winning cox and double Boat Race winner Acer Nethercott, who has died at the age of 35.

A spokesman for the Great Britain rowing team said: ‘Today we mourn his passing.’ Nethercott, who was from Essex, coxed the British men’s eight to Olympic silver in Beijing in 2008.

Read more on BBC sport news here. You will also find his biography on British Rowing’s website, here.

Update: Late in the day, Rachel Quarrell, the Daily Telegraph’s rowing correspondent, wrote that Nethercott died of an aggressive brain cancer ‘that he nevertheless fought off for several years.’ Read her article here.