Rowing eight bitterly disappointed

Press, 28 July 1986, Page 17

Rowing eight bitterly disappointed

From

KEVIN TUTTY

in Edinburgh

The first day of finals at the rowing course at Strathclyde did not produce the expected bounty of medals for New Zealand, and the team manager, Mr Dudley Storey, had to admit afterwards that he was a “little” disappointed . with the day’s outcome. The failure of the premier crew, the eight, in the last 1000 m of its race, left the crew members bitterly disappointed. They had established a comfortable advantage after the first 500 m, and maintained it to. the

1000 m, but when the pressure came on at the business end of the course the eight faltered badly.

Out on the far side of the course the wind may have been a little worse, but the cox, Andrew Hay, made no excuse after the race for the lane draw. In the last 1000 m the New Zealanders were clearly having trouble with their rhythm and several times crew members were obscured by water thrown up by oars at the rear of the shell. Meanwhile the Australian and England crews were rowing smoothly, and with 250 m to row had left the New Zealand crew behind and battling with Canada for third place. Canada finished

strongly and appeared to have pipped New Zealand for the bronze medal. The scoreboard showed Canada’s time as being two hundredths of a second faster than New Zealand’s, but 15 minutes later the photo-finish camera had still not separated the crews. It was 20 minutes before New Zealand’s bronze medal was confirmed. The race started 20 minutes late after three false starts, caused by the strong cross wind swinging the end of the shells off line.

Hay confirmed after the race that the eight had lost their cohesion in the last 1000 m. and that they had taken on a “fair amount” of water, but not

enough to make any difference to the flow of the boat. The one fact that could be used as an excuse for New Zealand was that it was its first competitive outing of the season, whereas the Australian and English crews had competed in international regattas in Europe in the weeks preceding the Games.

Mr Storey said the crew had a second chance at the world championships in. Nottingham, but they had a lot of work to do before then.

“They are capable of getting up there with the best. They were there for the first 1000 m today against two very good crews. It is that second

1000 m that they will have to work on.”

Eric Verdonk, who was told on the plane to Edinburgh that he would row in the single sculls for New Zealand as a replacement for Shane O’Brien, won a deserved bronze medal.

The winner, Steven Redgrave, of England, was the favourite, but he was led a merry chase by Verdonk in the first 1000 m. Verdonk rowed briskly from the start and still held an advantage of a length at the half-way stage. Not surprisingly he faltered in the second half of the race but his third was a commendable effort because it was his

first row in international competition.

His time of 7min 39s was well outside his best of 7min 14s, but was not unexpected in the conditions.

After the race he was delighted to have won the bronze medal and said more than once: “It was just a pleasure to row for New Zealand.”

Verdonk hopes that his medal will not go unnoticed by the New Zealand rowing selectors. “I .think the bronze justifies my being here and I hope now that I will be selected for Nottingham. If I am selected my goal will be to reach the final.”

The men’s lightweight coxed four were considered a medal chance, but

slipped in -the last 1000 m and were edged out of the bronze medal by the Canadian crew. The New Zealanders’ time was more than 20s slower than they had been recording in practice rows at Strathclyde.

Dale Maher was third in the early stages of the lightweight single sculls but slowly slipped back through the field and finished sixth, well in arrears of the other rowers.

The Australian squad was the dominant nation on the first day. Its crews showed the benefit of recent competition . in Europe, winning three golds, two silvers and a bronze in the six events they contested.