ROWING HEARTBREAK
Close, but no cigar as Barrow’s two crews finish fourth
NATIONAL rowing coach Roger Barrow’s biggest fear haunted him like a bad dream as two of his crews finished fourth with two crossing the finish line in fifth place in their respective finals on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon at the Rio Olympic Games.
It was a massacre as far as Olympic medal hopes go as the euphoria from the day before was replaced by disappointment.
The morning got off to a rocky start as the two favourite boats, the men’s and women’s lightweight double sculls crews finishing in fourth and fifth place respectively.
The women’s crew of Kirsten McCann and Ursula Grobler were in touch for a medal up until the 1 500m mark where they lost ground to finish in fifth place.
London 2012 gold medallists John Smith and James Thompson could not stop the bleeding as their customary surge towards the end escaped them.
Instead, they remained in fourth position from start to finish to see their hopes of an Olympic double float away.
“This was probably my worst dream come true. We are all pretty much devastated. I mainly feel for the athletes John and James, Kirst and Urs. They were probably our two favourite boats,” Barrow said.
“For them to finish fourth and fourth is gut-wrenching. They really put themselves out here and aiming for gold through the middle.
“We saw their determina- tion and commitment but it was so close to the line, but s**t happens.”
Thompson and Smith, who won South Africa’s first gold medals at the world championships two years ago in Amsterdam, missed the bronze medal by two seconds.
Barrow said he was nevertheless proud of his charges as they put up a good fight aiming for gold.
“You train this hard to make sure it doesn’t happen. They were in the mix. I think they went out too quickly for gold and all credit to them,” Barrow said. “We had a saying we wanted to definitely win this thing, they wanted to get a double Olympic gold and they didn’t have enough at the end.”
The purge continued as the women’s coxless pair of Kate Christowitz and Lee-Anne Persse finished well outside the medals, finishing fourth place.
The men’s four then looked like they could be pulling a rabbit out of the hat, going toe-totoe with world champions Italy.
The quartet of Jake Green, David Hunt, Vincent Breet and Jonty Smith were in the bronze medal position for most of the race but could not hold on as the Italians pipped them over the final stretch.
“They’ve grown in confidence, they had a cracker race and if they could just hold on, I mean fourth is the worst position in world sport. I don’t even want to use those words here to describe it,” Barrow said.
“I am chuffed for the guys for getting it, but we came here to win medals so it is all disappointing.”
Although the results were far from what Barrow and his team expected, they could take some solace in the fact that they had not only qualified five boats into the Olympics but also into the finals.
The previous day the men’s pair of Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling ignited hopes of a medal blitz for the other teams after winning silver.
“The high from yesterday, that was probably our best day in SA rowing and today, probably our worst,” Barrow said.
“Yesterday (Thursday) to get all those semis and good placings plus the silver of Lawrence and Shaun, I’ve got to make sure this negativity doesn’t overshadow that because I am so thrilled,” Barrow said.
“It is massive mixed emotions. You go up from last night, and believe we can now do this, and then to come down on this low is heavy.”