The
rowing events at the Olympic Games will be held at Dorney Lake near Windsor, If you are watching the events live, it promises to be a
fiesta like no other, but for many, it will be a case of settling down in front
of the TV, with this preview to provide visionary insights / comedic mis-predictions
(delete as appropriate post-Games, when hindsight is everything).
If
you’re going to bluff your way through the rowing, there a few fundamentals to
understand.
There
are two types of rowing. ‘Sweeping’ where crew members have one blade (note
that ‘blade’ there. Never an ‘oar’, got it?) and ‘Sculling’ where they have
two. Then there are ‘Lightweight’ events, where the average and total weight of
crews must not exceed strict parameters and the stroke-rate (number of strokes
per minute) is much higher than their Heavyweight counterparts. Finally of
course there are Men’s and Women’s events.
Thankfully,
it’s an easy sport to understand. Typically six nations will race each other
over a straight 2,000 metres, in heats, followed by repechages (for the
higher-placed losers in the heats) followed by finals (or by quarter finals and
semi finals in some events) where the medals are decided. There are certain
tactical nuances to races, but by and large, most crews will aim to establish an
early lead and then hang on for grim death.
And
finally, with Tug Of War consigned to Olympic history, Rowing and (stretching a
point), the High Jump are the only events where the competitors travel
backwards to victory!
A
quick look through the runners and riders then for each of the 14 events, with
an emphasis on the British challengers, since Rowing is a sport where ‘Team GB’
can expect a decent medal haul. Performance Director David Tanner has
challenged our oarsmen to better the six medals that saw Great Britain top the
rowing medals table in Beijing and on home water and with excellent funding
from Siemens and the National Lottery, this is a realistic objective.
Men’s Eight (Final: Wednesday 1st August)
The
‘Blue Ribbon’ event of the regatta, in which, up until the final World Cup
event in Munich in June, Britain could reasonably have expected to be on the
podium. However, the British crew well and truly fluffed their lines in
Germany, trailing home third behind Australia and the surprise winners Poland.
This race was without the all-conquering German Eight and would have sent our
crew off to their pre-games camp with plenty to think about, not least the composition
of the crew – they were missing young hotshot Constantine Louloudis in all
three of the World Cup events, due to injury - and the order (who will row in
what position in the boat?) Louloudis is back for London and should add power
but this will be the first regatta at which the full-strength GB Eight will
have rowed together and it’s asking a lot for them to gel quickly. One hopes
their time at camp has seen them generate a rhythm to add to their undoubted strength.
It will still be a huge ‘ask’ to see them overhaul the favourites Germany (in
their fearsome green boat) and the USA and Canada will not be far away either.
Women’s Pair (Final: Wednesday 1st August)
We
may well see history made in this event as Heather Stanning and Helen Glover
are the favourites to become Britain’s first Women’s Olympic Rowing gold
medallists. They have carried all before them this season after just being
pipped for Gold by New Zealand in the World Championships last autumn. They
have come back stronger, worked on their technique under Coach Robin Williams and
have seen off challenges from the USA and then a morale-boosting win over their
nemesis, New Zealand in Munich. Both the latter crews will be competitive and
Romania always throw in at least one ‘where did they come from?’ performance –
but this is GB’s to lose.
Women’s Quadruple Sculls (Final: Wednesday 1st August).
Four
women, each using two blades, remember? The Quad is the most beautiful boat to
watch when everything is in harmony. Power? Yes, for sure – you’re nothing
without the miles on the ergo through the winter to build strength, but the
precision and ‘swing’ of a perfectly honed Quad is the stuff better men then me
write poetry about. The GB Quad have been borderline competitive this season,
but injury has meant a shuffling of the line up and whilst Fran Houghton and
Debbie Flood survive from the crew that won silver in Beijing, a similar result
in London would be a huge achievement. This should develop into a shootout
between Ukraine and Germany.
Men’s Double Sculls (Final: Thursday 2nd August).
After
a surprise second place in the first World Cup regatta in Belgrade, GB’s Bill
Lucas and Sam Townsend have subsequently been put in their place at Lucerne (6th)
and in Munich where they went ‘eyeballs out’ holding second place through 1500
metres before fading into fourth behind Norway, New Zealand and Germany. One
would be putting a lot of faith in the enervating power of home water to see
them holding on and bettering this position at Dorney. Watch out for the bow rower
in the Norwegian boat. Long hair and a celebration style more over the top than
the First World War, if they grab a medal!
Men’s Lightweight Four (Final: Thursday 2nd August).
The
first Lightweight final and a noticeable difference in technique. What
lightweights lack in raw strength, they make up for in a higher stroke rate
than their heavyweight counterparts. It’ll look like threshing machine, will be
desperately close but GB go into this with real hopes of a Gold. Our crew of
the Chambers brothers, Chris Bartley and Rob Williams produced a flawless
performance in Munich, winning by over two seconds, which is an eternity in
Lightweight rowing. Denmark and Australia will challenge hard and China are
very much a live but largely unknown quantity however Britain should fear no
one.
Women’s Eight (Final: Thursday 2nd August).
A
bronze medal in last year’s World Championship set a marker for the GB Eight in
2012 and they’ve been just around that level in the key international regattas
this season. The Dutch have been disappointing so it’s a question of how to
find speed to get in amongst the powerhouses of Canada, USA and Romania? Stroke
Victoria Thornley has switched from the Women’s Quad back to sweep rowing and
this is an experienced boat, boasting Olympic silver medallist Annabel Vernon
and a host of Beijing Olympians. A boat then that home advantage can propel to
the medal podium. The talent is there.
Men’s Single Sculls (Final: Friday 3rd August)
If Ulsterman
Alan Campbell can pace his race correctly, he can come away with something
shiny. It’s asking a lot for him to beat Mahe Drysdale (NZ) and Ondrej Synek
(CZK). Olaf Tufte (NOR) is a fearsome Olympian, who does very little between
Games but is always at concert-pitch for the ‘big un’ whilst Marcel Hacker
(GER) won impressively in Munich. There is also a dark horse in the shape of
Cuban Angel Rodriguez in what promises to be one of the most competitive events
at Dorney as well as one of the most compelling. Six athletes, on their own,
with no one to rely on, blame or share the brickbats and plaudits with.
Competitive sport at its rawest and not to be missed!
Men’s Pair (Final: Friday 3rd August)
If
New Zealand don’t win this, it will be the biggest surprise since the Captain
of the Titanic said ‘What iceberg?’ In such an eventuality Hamish Bond and Eric
Murray will be forced to row back home themselves. Utterly dominant throughout
the four year Olympiad, they have forced Great Britain’s Andy Triggs-Hodge and
Pete Reed back into the GB Four – and the British pair were their closest
rivals at last year’s World Championships. At Dorney, GB will be represented by
the youth of George Nash and Will Satch. They will give a good account of
themselves but if it’s anything other than New Zealand first, fresh air second
it will be one of the shocks of the regatta. Scrub that; the whole Olympics.
Men’s Quadruple Sculls (Final: Friday 3rd August)
The
Leander Club threesome of Matt Wells, Tom Solesbury and Stephen Rowbotham are
joined by Reading University’s Charles Cousins, but they face probably the
toughest challenge of all the GB crews. After failing to make the Final in the
World Championships last season, our Quad has once again been found wanting for
speed against the likes of Croatia, Germany, Australia and Italy and Estonia and
it is unrealistic to expect a wholesale reversal of fortunes in London.
Women’s Double Sculls (Final: Friday 3rd August)
This
could be another one of the stories of the Games. Thirty Six year old Katherine
Grainger has won a silver medal in the last three Olympics, the last of these
in heartbreaking fashion in Beijing when the Quad was overhauled by the Chinese
crew within sight of the finish. This time around, she is in the Double with
Anna Watkins and they go to the Games as favourites, following their unbeaten
record this season. The biggest barrier to this piece of British Olympic
history could be a piece of Australian Olympic history as Kim Crow will attempt
to win two Golds, here, with her partner Brooke Pratley and in the Single Sculls, a schedule which
will guarantee Ms Crow a minimum of six races over eight days. It should be the
first of two GB vs. Australia showdowns (more of which next) with Poland in the
medal mix too.
Men’s Four (Final: Saturday 4th August)
Likely
to be the second great GB vs. Australia clash (with all respect to Greece,
Germany and Belarus), with great storylines abounding if either of these
countries win. Britain have made the Four their number one boat, changing last
year’s World Championship winning crew to accommodate Pete Reed and Andy
Triggs-Hodge, chastened after their year as a Pair perpetually following home
the mighty New Zealanders. The GB coach Jurgen Grobeler has overseen a crew to
victory at every Games since 1972 and will not expect that sequence to end at
Dorney. Given the priority this boat has received in the GB hierarchy, coming
second is not an option, however there is a very real chance of this since the
Brits will be facing an Australian Four containing Drew Ginn. This phenomenal
athlete will be aiming for his fourth Olympic Gold (he’s also posted world
class performances as a cycling time trialist in 2010, when he took a year away
from the water.) His crew beat the GB Four in Munich in June, where their
superior technique trumped the raw power of Reed, Triggs-Hodge, Alex Gregory
and Tom James. For many, this will be THE event of the 2012 Olympic regatta.
Men’s Lightweight Double
Sculls (Final: Saturday 4th August)
Reigning
Olympic Champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter are set to defend their title on
home water and their Championship-winning pedigree puts them in with a chance
of achieving this; however it has been a far from smooth journey this season.
After winning the World Championships last September, any thoughts of the
Olympics being a rubber-stamping exercise were dashed by heavy defeats in the
Lucerne and Munich World Cup events this season. The Britain’s have the
know-how and desire to turn things around but sharks, in the shape of New
Zealand, France, Italy and Denmark, smell blood.
Women’s Single Sculls (Final: Saturday 4th August)
From
a partisan perspective, time to put your feet up and enjoy a brew or something
stronger, as GB have not qualified a boat for this event. Ekatarina Karsten
from Belarus turned 40 in June and will go off favourite to add a further
Olympic gold to the two she already has, following an eight year hiatus which
saw her take silver in 2004 and bronze in 2008. Another heroic story beckons
therefore but Kim Crow of Australia (see earlier), Xiuyun Zhang (China) and Emma Twigg (New
Zealand) will be out to ruin the Belarus party. If we are to claim an
‘athlete-by-proxy’ for GB then Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic spent much
of 2010 and 2011 training in Henley and won the Princess Royal Challenge
Cup at the Henley Regatta in both these years – as British as Fish and Chips
then! She should be competitive at Dorney.
Women’s Lightweight
Double Sculls (Final: Saturday 4th August)
Following
their bronze in the World Championships last year, Hester Goodsell retired and
crewmate Sophie Hosking has teamed up with new partner Kat Copeland. An
encouraging second place in the opening World Cup event in Belgrade was
followed by more sobering fifth and fourth places at Lucerne and Munich. It
would be foolish to put a line through them for a medal at London, but China,
New Zealand, Denmark and Greece hold stronger claims based on their
performances this season.
None
of the athletes highlighted in this preview are millionaires. None will kiss
the Union Jack on the winner’s podium then demand a pay rise the next day. None
will fall out of a nightclub, drunk, on the arms of a pneumatic starlet /
thick-as-mince hunk, and be splashed all over the Fleet Street redtops.
They
are, by and large, approachable, utterly dedicated, possess an ‘off the scale’
level of fitness and will put on a hell of a show in a little piece of
Buckinghamshire in these next few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment