Rowing eight dethroned but win first N.Z. medal

Press, 27 July 1976, Page 14

Rowing eight dethroned but win first N.Z. medal

Bv

MAX LAMBERT,

NZPA staff correspondent

Montreal

New Zealand was dethroned yesterday as the reigning Olympic champion in the premier rowing event at the Games, the eights. The New Zealand crew, five of whom were veterans of the gold medal crew in Munich, were hcaten clearly by East Germany and Great Britain.

But the New Zea-i landers rowed a strong! race and their bronze medal, the first earned by New Zealanders at I the twenty-first Olym-i pic Games, was a great achievement. It compensated, in part.; for the failure earlier in the dav of New Zealand s two, four-oared crews to win medals The four with cox’ finished last in their final •nd the coxless four wa*[ edged into fourth place. The finals were dominatedj tn' f uropean crews, in par-i ttcular those from fast Germans'. The Germans won no

fewer than five of the eight gold medals at stake and picked up one silver andl two bronze to give them the astonishing record of a medal in every race. In addition to the eights. East Germany won the coxJess four, quadruple sculls, •nd both pairs events. Norway, in the double •culls, and Finland, in the •ingle sculls, won gold medals for the first tune in Olympic rowing. The other •vent, the coxed four, was taken by the Soviet Union, who had a generally dis-' appointing day. British crews did well toi finish second in the double 1 sculls and eights but the only appearance of ani American crew on the victory dias, in the coxlessl

.[pair. underlined the eclipse! ,[at these Olympics of the 'United States as a rowing •[power. I The Game* marked the J first time that a United i States crew had not run in a I final of any Olympic eight. New Zealand won a gold medal in the coxed four at Mexico City and a gold and ■ja silver, in the coxless four, •lat Munich and. judged pu>|rely on medal results. J appears to have slipped back in the past four years. I But New Zealand rowing I officials said after yesterday's races it was more a case of improving world I, standards and that New Zealand crews were simply going to have to get more il international competition to

[ maintain their ranking 11 Thev said that New ZeaI land selection and training ■[methods were first class but lithe crews were going to find [it harder and harder to win . internationally unless they • go more competitive racing. The eight this year rowed much further in training 1 than did the Munich crew 1 but did not have the same i number of races before the i Games as the eight four ■ years ago. > In fact it had only. one [true race, against the United ■ States, before going into the Olympic regatta. i New Zealand probably 'will have to start rebuilding ■ its eights crew for Moscow i[ because five of the nine in ■ the boat yesterday were alilready veterans of Munich

(and most of them are expected to retire before long. One who won’t is the cox, Simon Dickie, of Taupo, who achieved a unique triple for a New Zealand athlete by winning his third successive Olympic medal. Dickie, who coxed the four at Mexico City and the eight at Munich, said he would definitely try and get in the crew again for the next Olympics. And Rustv Robertson, the man who has coached the New Zealand eight for some years and whose job as Rothmans national coach ends next month, said after the race he would like to continue his association with the crew. New Zealanders at the rowing course on Not reDatne Island, on the St Lawrence River, cheered lustily for the New Zealand eight after their disappointment watching the fours in action. There seemed to be more New Zealands in the crowd on the far bank terraces than any other national group and they went mad when the Kiwi crew took the bronze medal. They waved huge signs like “C’mon New Zealand” and “New Zealand in gold” and New Zealand flags. And when the New Zealand eight, after the medal ceremony and the row-past of the 11 eights crews that took part in the regatta rowed back along the course as a mark of thanks to the crowd, the New Zealand supporters surged over the wire fence along

the edge of the stone embankment. It was almost like fans mobbing a pop star. One New Zealander jumped into the water and swam out to the eights shell carrying beer for the oarsmen. The eight made a great start and led the five other nations past the 500 metres in a close race.. The British crew led narrowly for the next 1000 metres and it seemed Great Britain might just win. But the powerful East Germans swung past the British for a decisive win. New Zealand rowed a faster final quarter than Britain but could not make up the gap. East Germany won in a sensationally fast 5:58.29, with Britain timed at 6:0.82 and New Zealand at 6:03.51. The New Zealand coxless four put up a great fight for third but lost out narrowly to Russia over the final quarter. The Kiwis were not quite ready when the starter’s flag fell and when the field settled down were last. They made up a Jot of ground but their slow start and lost distance were a handicap they could not overcome. It was a good performance to finish fourth. The coxed four was completely outclassed by the other five boats and was never in the hunt. They were quickly last and rowed in 20 seconds behind the winning Russian crew.