Rowers miss out on Olympics spot
ROWING: There will be no place at the Rio Olympics for the New Zealand men’s four after all.
Rowing’s international governing body, Fisa, confirmed yesterday that Russia will enter a boat in the event, which means the New Zealand crew’s hopes of a lastminute invite have been dashed.
Rowing New Zealand chief executive Simon Peterson said that while they accepted the decision, they were not happy with how the process around the Russian Federation had played out.
‘‘It has caused turmoil for almost every country around the world in terms of the sports sector and our men’s four have been caught up in that, so we’re hugely disappointed for them. We’re always athlete-focused; we wanted to deliver the Olympic dream for them and sadly it hasn’t quite worked out.’’
Peterson said the crew, which consists of Anthony Allen, Patrick McInnes, Axel Dickinson and Drikus Conradie, had taken the news well.
‘‘They’re hugely disappointed to not be going to the Olympics, but there’s been a lot of uncertainty and we’ve been asking them to come and train at the lake now for nearly six weeks, and it dragged on a few more days than expected. They’ve handled this process very professionally and they’ve now got a decision.’’
Russia’s decision to enter a crew comes after their rowing squad was reduced from 28 athletes to six in the wake of the country’s recent doping scandal.
Fisa was given the power to decide which Russian athletes could compete in Rio, following the International Olympic Committee’s decision to leave the issue of Russian participation up to individual sporting federations.
Three Russian rowers were excluded earlier this week, two for having previous doping sanctions, and one for having been implicated in doping by the McLaren report.
None of the 28 rowers entered by Russia had been found to have tested positive in the past five years, but doubts over the reliability of Wada’s Moscow laboratory raised by the McLaren report led Fisa to exclude 19 further athletes on Wednesday.
That meant Russia’s entries in four events - the men’s and women’s eight, the lightweight women’s double sculls and the lightweight men’s four - were excluded, but that they still had
the opportunity to enter a men’s four.
Peterson said Rowing NZ would not appeal the decision.
‘‘We’ve had a chat with the athletes and our high performance director and myself have considered what our options are, but we believe in the best interests of the athletes here and of the athletes we have in Rio that this is the end of the road for the men’s four.’’
The crew finished third at the last-chance Olympic qualifying regatta in Switzerland in May, where the top two crews qualified.
With the prospect of Russian disqualification looming, Peterson had them continue training, a move which he said had been worthwhile.
‘‘It was a huge call from me to ask them to come back six weeks ago, but it was the right decision and I think what’s played out over the past two weeks has proven it was the right decision, and I think the athletes have acknowledged that this morning.
‘‘They were grateful that we gave them the opportunity, and I’m proud of their response to me,’’ Peterson said.