Notes from a sporting week 05/05/08

Oars in for Beijing:

Rowing has been one of Britain’s best sources of medals at the Olympics Games and this week the team’s preparations were finalised and the various teams named for the World Cup that begins in Munich this week and who, barring a disaster, are expected to stay together all the way through to Beijing in August.

That expectations are high around rowing is largely thanks to the efforts of firstly Sir Steve Redgrave and then Sir Mathew Pinsent, who won five and four consecutive medals respectively. However, since their retirements there is now a realisation that the there is more to rowing than just those two.

At Sydney 2000 the team won three medals, including gold for Redgrave and Pinsent in the coxless fours and gold for the eights, as well as silver for the women’s quad sculls. Four years on in Athens the number of medals increased to four, with the men’s four retaining their gold medal. There are hopes that the number will increase in Beijing, having taken seven medals in Olympic class events at last years World Championships in Munich.

Once more the men’s fours has taken the majority of the attention, with a last minute change to the line-up. Just before Athens Alex Partridge was forced to withdraw from the four with a collapsed lung. This year he has been moved to the eight with the four made up of Steve Williams, who survives from 2004, Peter Reed, Andy Hodge and Tom James. Having won the 2005 and 2006 World Championships as part of 27 consecutive wins, there was a feeling that the team had gone stale, having finished seventh in Munich.

Of course such changes are nothing new. Between Sydney and Athens there was the expectation that Pinsent would go for his fourth consecutive gold alongside James Cracknell in the coxless pairs. Initially things went well for the duo and there was the famous day at the 2001 World Championships where 20 minutes after winning the coxless pair gold, they added the coxed pair gold. However, things went wrong in 2003 when they finished outside the medals, forcing coach Jurgen Grobler to act and put them into the coxless fours.

The change comes once again from the German and should silence any doubters. The East German has been winning rowing medals at Olympic Games since 1972 and was the inspiration behind three of Redgrave’s five Olympics golds.

This time there are high hopes for the eight, who along with Partridge have been joined by Colin Smith and Matt Langridge from the coxless pairs and in 2007 won a surprise bronze at the World Championships. The exact line-up has yet to be revealed, with 10 names selected for the Munich event being whittled down as Beijing draws nearer.

One thing that has stood out recently for the British squad is the success of the women’s team, with three of the four medals in Athens coming from the females. In Munich’s World Championships they won two gold medals, two bronze medals and will expect more of the same in Athens.

David Turner, the GB Rowing Performance Director has said that the squad would be pleased with four medals, though he is surely being mischievous with such sentiments. Having topped the table at the 2007 World Championships with eight medals the team will secretly be aiming much higher.

In 1996 it was Redgrave and Pinsent that saved the British Olympic team from utter obscurity by winning Britain’s only gold medal in Atlanta. That in 2008 there are no major names taking to the water shows what an excellent job GB Rowing has done in increasing the talent pool and that despite their attempts to keep a lid on expectations few people will be fooled by Tanners words.

Mixed start for Jamaica:

Another team hopeful of doing well in Beijing is the Jamaica sprint team and to that end they got off to a strong start to the season when Usain Bolt ran 9.76 seconds in Jamaica over the weekend. It gives the team a little fillip after the news that their big hope for 100m gold, Asafa Powell, will miss the meetings in Doha, Oslo and Eugene with a chest injury.

Bolt, the 2007 World 200m silver medallist, finished in a time two hundred’s of a second slower than Powell’s world record of 9.74 and lays down a marker to big rival and 100m world champion Tyson Gay, who ran 20.00 in his first 200m of the season.

There were high hopes for Powell and the Jamaica team going into the Athens Olympics, but they turned out to be one of the anticlimaxes of the Games. Powell disappointed in the 100m final, then failed to show up for the 200m final meaning the team were disqualified from the 4x100m relay. In the end it was the women that saved the day, with Veronica Crawford winning 200m gold, 100m silver and then anchoring the 4x100m team to victory.

Since then there have been strong showings from the Jamaicans in both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships. In Helsinki in 2005 Michael Frater took silver in the 100m, whilst Campbell took the 100m silver and helped the 4x100m team to second. Things improved in Osaka when Powell won the 100m bronze, with Bolt finishing third in the 200m and then they teamed up to win second in the 4x100m relay. Campbell also improved her standing with 100m gold, 200m silver and another 4x100m relay silver.

Of course at the same time the USA flexed its muscles and showed that it can still churn out champion runners. Whilst Justin Gatlin fell off his perch and was exposed as a drug cheat Tyson Gay went on and won double sprint gold in Osaka. There are also the likes of Wallace Spearman and Leroy Dixon who have proved themselves over the last Olympiad.

There should be little doubt that Jamaica is the USA’s main rivals in the sprints and there are few reasons why not. However, the same was true before Athens, but in the end they were unable to handle the pressure of the day and the less heralded ladies team showed them what was possible with a bit of belief. Bolt’s victory this weekend should give the team the belief that they need, they just need to build on it and keep it till Beijing if Powell and co are to truly fulfil their undoubted potential.
JI 05/05/08