David Isaacson
HEAD coach Roger Barrow took the phone call, then headed out of the indoor training session in Tzaneen.
“There’s a problem at the dam — they want us to take our stuff away,” he quickly explained before rushing off.
That was last Monday, the first morning of the South African rowing squad’s final pre-Olympic camp in the Limpopo town, to which they have migrated for the past 11 years.
With less than a month to the start of the rowing at the Rio Games, it wasn’t what Barrow needed to hear.
At least three of his crews will be in the hunt for medals, which would push rowing’s profile closer to swimming and athletics.
Those two sports account for 21 of South Africa’s 25 Olympic medals since readmission at Barcelona 1992, with rowing contributing two and tennis and kayaking one each.
The Barrow factory at the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre has been breaking boundaries since the men’s lightweight fours stunned the world to win gold at London 2012.
It is one of the best sports programmes in South Africa, perhaps the best.
The production line in the past two years features South Africa’s first rowing world champions, James Thompson and John Smith, as well as the country’s first women world championship medallists, Kirsten McCann and Ursula Grobler.
The five crews who qualified for the Rio Games represent a record too.
That’s a big achievement considering the tiny talent pool, with the sport being offered by only 50 or so schools countrywide.
Just 21 rowers have been through Barrow’s senior squad since 2013, with 12 getting the nod for Rio.
Barrow has been described by those who know him as ruthless and a genius; his system blends science and art with a no-nonsense attitude.
Two years ago, when the first icy spell of the approaching winter hit Gauteng one windy morning, Barrow received a phone call from two peripheral rowers wanting to know if training was still on because of the cold.
He didn’t mince his words. “Your ex-teammates are training this morning and don’t bother coming back.”
Barrow, 40, demands that the rowers compete for seats in every boat, and past glories mean nothing; there was no sentimentality for Sizwe Ndlovu, the black gold medallist from four years ago.
A head coach in name, Barrow doubles as manager, handling the sport’s politics and raising funds.
He didn’t take long to resolve the problem at Tzaneen Dam. It turned out there was a new lease owner unfamiliar with the rowing squad which came there every year for a final tune-up before international competition. OKES’ STROKES: From front are the fours rowing team of Jake Green, Vincent Breet , Jonty Smith and David Hunt in training on Tzaneen Dam TASKMASTER: Head rowing coach Roger Barrow has a no-nonsense approach to training
Later that day anti-doping agents descended unannounced, setting up shop in the same hotel to test the rowers.
Veteran rower Thompson walked into their room asking: “Who wants to watch me pee?” He was taking a BAR TORQUE: Kirsten McCann works out in the gym before venturing on to the water dig at the invasive nature of the testing process, where athletes forfeit privacy.
He and Smith are the sole survivors of the men’s lightweight four from London 2012. Injuries to two teammates in 2013 meant they had to row in a smaller boat in training.
They couldn’t move down to a sweep-oar pairs boat, where they would have remained using one oar apiece, because they both rowed bowside (left-hand side).
Barrow felt it would be easier to put them into a double scull, where they use two oars each, than to switch one of them to strokeside (right).
“They did a fast time in training one day and that gave me the idea of racing them in double sculls,” said just peed. Again.”
“Bastard!” retorted Green, gulping down as much liquid as he could.
Barrow has been to two Olympics as a coach, but he never made it as a rower.
He had harboured dreams of competing at Sydney 2000, but the coach of the fours team dropped him.
Jackson was that coach, although he doesn’t remember Barrow from then.
Barrow, on the other hand, hasn’t forgotten Jackson’s technical skills.
Jackson instructed his crew this week to close their eyes mid-stroke. “Rowing is about feel and sound. Sight is the third sense,” he said.
“We’re playing in water, the boat becomes alive . . . On the sporting continuum, on the one side you have sumo wrestling and on the other you have ballet.
“We’re closer to ballet,” he insisted, adding as a warning: “I can wax lyrical about rowing all day if you don’t shut me up.”
Jackson has no formal coaching qualification, but having produced an Olympic gold medal he is entitled to the highest-level certificate from rowing’s world governing body, Fisa — should he ever ask for it.
Barrow, who occasionally gets Jackson to cast an eye on other crews, has also been praised for the medical team he’s assembled.
Physiologist Jimmy Clark monitors performances and assesses the rowers to see whether they should back off in training.
Missing one week because of injury or illness will take a rower five to six weeks to get back to where they should be, he says.
“An elite athlete’s body is a machine that is costly to maintain. From the moment you stop, the drop-off is rapid.”
Dr Danielle Brittain, a former specialist in palliative care, was brought in to manage pain, helping the rowers distinguish injury from acceptable training pain. Continued on Page 16