Eight wins bronze again

Press, 6 November 1978, Page 32

Eight wins bronze again

From TIM DUNBAR ; Even the huge roar that; started with the crews a full; ] 850 m from the finish line! ] could not boost the New !! Zealand eight to the gold medal it so urgently sought ; at the world rowing cham- ! pionships at Lake Karapiro yesterday. The eight went all out for a win but had to be content ■ with a bronze behind two ; mighty crews, East Germany and West Germany, but a : vocal crowd of 34,000 still : seemed satisfied. ! Incredibly, East Germany recorded a time of smin [54.2s even though the race I was rowed into a head-wind J that drained the energy of| Ithe oarsmen. West Germany! | was about one-third of al length back, with New Zea-] land a full length behind the] gold medallist. Whatever else the event proved it certainly showed that New Zealand can boat the most consistent eights in the world. It is the fourth time in succession that an| eights bronze medal has been won by New Zealand in an Olympics or world! championships (1974. 1975,1 1976 and 1978) and it has not finished out of a medal since 1968. New Zealand’s race plan was to put pressure on the East Germans from the start ' and although it led for quite a time the eight was just not able to burn off the East Germans. The attempt found the New Zealanders under unusually high physical stress. “I never knew that last 500 to feel that hard before. I’m sure Amsterdam wasn’t like that,” said Sutherland, , one of the two survivors 1 from the Montreal eight. “It was like going through the sound barrier,” said David Lindstrom, with Sutherland a coxiess fours silver medallist at the 1977 world championships. Crew members admitted that the race plan had entailed a “bit of a risk” and the coach, Mr Harry Mahon, said that “we were going out to win and we could have blown the whole thing.”

j “1 felt the only way we i could beat East Germany ; was to put pressure on ; them. But it was hard to do ; this with them on the other (side of the lake,” he said. New Zealand. coincidentally, had drawn lane i one,, nearest to the specta-1 ! tors, while East Germany] ] was way over in lane six. i Other countries in the; (strong field have had plenty] ! of competition in European! | regattas this season while] [New Zealand was having; [just its third race — all at! karapiro this past week. [ “I think the lack of racing experience told: we were leading till about 600 m out,” said Mr Mahon. New Zealand rated about 38 through the middle of the

I course, as in the repechage, according to the coxswain, [Alan Cotter. Unfortunately, [it faded in the third 500. ; Splits for the final show that Bulgaria, one of the crews expected to get a medal, led through the 500 m in Imin 23.44 s with New Zealand 1.07 s back just in front of West Germany. Bulgaria had started falling off the pace by the 1000 m mark and eventually slipped to fifth. New Zealand was first through that halfway point in 2min 55.18 s but East Germany, 0.66 s back, had reduced the gap. East. Germany had by far the best third 500 with 90.55 s and New Zealand, |now back in third place, was | already fading with a time lof 92.995. It picked up to 188.99 s in the final quarter | but both East and West Germany were again faster. Ross Lindstrom, the big man in the No. 4 seat and one of the youngest in the crew, proabably summed up the East Germans’ superb effort when he said: “They just poured it on too much for us.” As at Montreal, the crew list for lhe eights was in the! wrong order and nobody received the “right” medal. Sutherland said: “I was Tony Hurst last time. It tends to brass you off a bit." For the East Germans lhe win brought them their fifth gold medal from the eight events, exactly the same as at Amsterdam. Remarkably, the eight was successful in spite of having six changes from the crew that won last year.

East Germany also won the coxed fours, coxed and coxless pairs and the quad. The major surprise in- the events was the defeat of the celebrated East German coxless four of Siegfried Brietzke, Andreas Decker, Stefan Semmler and Wolfgang Mager, the 26-year-old “sports students” from Leipzig who have won every world title since 1974.

Russia got away on the East Germans at the start and the latter were never really able to regain touch in spite of a startling burst over the last 500 m which took them within Im- Britain, with a young, relatively light crew, astonished many observers with a fine row for the bronze medal. The other golds in the men’s events were won by Norway (double sculls) and West Germany (single), with Britain topping the Western ; nations with two silvers and

a bronze. East Germany’s gold tally in the men’s final took it to eight over-all, way ahead of the next best, Russia and Bulgaria, which managed two each. New Zealand’s two other finalists, the double scullers and the coxed four, were not expected to be in the race for medals and sixth places

| for them were no disgrace. ! Things started badly for [the double before it even got lon the water with Peter (Jansen, a member of the squad, being told only on Saturday night that he had to take John White’s place. White had caught a viral in-( fection and hardly felt strong enough to even row down to the start — let | alone race. New Zealand was already 3.55 s down on the United States, fifth, at the 100 m mark and any remaining chance they had of improving vanished when Jansen lost his seat at this stage. Strong emphasis on the fact that the coxless four (Sam le Compte, Tony Brook, Robbie Robinson andSteve Donaldson) was unlucky not to be in the final |was made in the petit final when the crew row’ed extremely well to beat Switzerland by a length for seventh place in the world. Its] time of (imin 29.05 s would] have been good enough fori fifth in the final. John Alexander, the single! sculler, the coxed pair and] the quad both finished sec-] ond in the consolation finals! for eighth places over-all. The quad kept up with Aus-; tria quite well, while Alex-, ander. just beaten by Hans! Svensson (Sweden), was' happy with his effort —| “but I've got to improve.” ] Disappointingly. the! strong coxless pair of Viv] Haar and lan Boserio did] not have a particularly good] race and beat only one crew!

to the line for eleventh riplace in the world. t! A re-appearance in a • double sculling boat b\ the • famous Norwegian brothers, ■ Frank and Alf Hansen, > helped to keep men's finals . day full of interest. The • combination won the gold t medal at the Montreal Olym- ■; pics and split up last season 11 when Frank Hansen, now age 33. coached juniors and his younger brother went I into single sculls. This season the Hansens came together again and proved they are still the best in the world with a comfortable victory over Britain's Mike Hart and • Chris Bailieu yesterday. Britain was headed finally i after 1250 m when Norway put in a burst and by the 1500 m mark the brothers were in control. The eventual margin was about threequarters of a length Sayle fastest INZPA Sydney I The Australian inter- ' national rider, Jeff Sayle I (Yamaha TZ7SO). dominated ■ the first round of the Swann unlimited motor-cycle series lat Oran Park yesterday. Sayle, aged 24, moved to a 1 commanding lead in both iheats of the round to claim ■ a maximum 30 points — i eight ahead of his nearest i rival, Victorian Bob Rosenthal (Yamaha TZ7501.