The London Olympics rowing hopeful continues our weekly diary in the countdown to the Games...

I'm a lifelong West Ham fan. As an eight-year-old, I used to stand behind the goal on the North Bank and my heroes were Tony Cottee and Frank McAvennie.

The day before Gianfranco Zola got sacked I was actually at Upton Park for a corporate event with Cottee and other former players. I got to hang out in the changing rooms, which is always a great buzz and to walk out at Upton Park, which is a schoolboy's dream — well, it was mine as a schoolboy, anyway.

I didn't see Zola but I wasn't surprised to hear about his sacking yesterday. For me, he'd had his time. When he was appointed, like a lot of fans, I gave him a chance and he did really well in his first season. But I think it became clear he's too nice to be a manager at the moment as he hasn't quite picked up the nasty streak you need.

The players clearly love the guy and I can understand that as it's inspirational to be coached by someone that's done it all as a player — you believe everything they tell you and you think anything is possible. But a manager isn't meant to be everyone's friend and I see Zola more as a No2 right now, a bit like the job Ray Wilkins does at Chelsea.

As for a replacement, I'd go for Mark Hughes. He did a good job at Manchester City and they brought in an apparent hot shot in Roberto Mancini to replace him and I don't think he's necessarily done that much better. And you can imagine that Hughes certainly has a nasty streak if needs be.

Sadly, I've not been to Upton Park to watch a game since January as training's been pretty intense. There's just two weeks to go before me and Zac Purchase, my rowing partner, get our season under way in our first World Cup event in Bled in Slovenia.

The line-up for the British rowing team is announced next week and I'm confident on our training form that Zac and I will be there. I'm really excited because if selected it will be the first time I will have raced against the world's best since the Beijing Olympics.

I've been really pleased with my progress in training and Zac's going really well too.
You can't push yourself to the limit in every session but sometimes you know you have to. You can never really replicate the intensity of a race but in training you know that the harder you push yourself the more prepared you'll be for any eventuality when it matters.

For different rowers, that can mean different things but throwing up is very much part of me pushing myself to the limit in training. There's a massive amount of lactic acid building up and sometimes you just have to flush it out.

Unfortunately, sport is cut throat and, if pushing myself like that and being sick makes me better prepared for the World Cup season and the World Championships, then I'm happy to do it.

To find out more about Mark Hunter visit www.markhunter.eu