Rowers at odds over Games preparation

Press, 31 July 1986, Page 25

Rowers at odds over Games preparation

| From

KEVIN TUTTY

in Edinburgh

No-one was prepared to admit it, but it was obvious tbe New Zealand rowers and tbeir coaches at the Commonwealth Games, and the administration of the sport, were at odds over preparation for these Games. Comments from rowers and coaches (after their events), who had to settle for silver medals yesterday were that they were short of one or two races, and that the time in Europe before the Games would have made the difference between silver and gold in several cases.

The one morsel of consolation that the crews took from the Games was that they were now well prepared for the world championships. The coxed four, which along with the eight, were the premier men’s crews at these championships, went one place better than the eight yesterday. They won the silver, and like the coxless four earlier in the day, they were beaten by less than a length. The crew’s coach, Harry Mahon, said that the four were definitely short of a hard race and they had allowed themselves to get too far behind the competent English crew in the first half of the race.

England’s crew did exceptionally well to win the coxed four, because it contained Steven Redgrave and Andrew Holmes, who earlier in the day had won the gold medal in the coxless pairs. Redgrave was the toast of the English team and the English media yesterday. He won three gold medals at the rowing. He won the single

sculls last Saturday. Mr Mahon said that the New Zealand crew would have beaten the English combination if they had had a little more preparation. “We could not afford to make any mistakes today. We lost too much ground at the start and were a length down at the half way stage. Against a crew of that standard that was too much to make up. But we will see how we go against them at the world championship.”

Mr Mahon said the four, and probably all the crews would have benefited from competing in Lucerne or at some other regatta before the Commonwealth Games. Mr Mahon said the crew had a few things to work on before Nottingham but he was sure it would develop well and be a match for the best crews there, including the Eastern bloc countries.

In spite of being down a length at the half-way stage the New Zealand crew fought back tenaciously over the last half and in particular over the last 250 m. They gained half a length on the English crew, but were perhaps a little fortunate to win the silver medal. The Australians also finished fast but missed a couple of beats in the last 100 m and finished a canvas behind New Zealand. The Kiwis in turn were three-quar-ters of a length behind the English crew.