Rowing Preview

Here's a preview of the rowing I wrote for my local paper. It's not a betting guide. It'll hopefully help anyone watching rowing with just a minimum of knowledge of the sport get something out of the experience.

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 our little piece of Buckinghamshire in these next few weeks.