RIO OLYMPICS ROWING
Mars is on a new mission
AS Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge embraced to celebrate their third Olympic rowing gold, the two British heroes were experiencing wildly contrasting emotions.
Reed, 35, said he feels as if he could “keep on rowing forever” and is eyeing a tilt at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
But Triggs Hodge, 37, is adamant his race is run – and he left with a parting shot at rowing’s governors, who often made him hate the sport.
Triggs Hodge and Reed were part of the victorious British men’s four in Beijing and London – and they continued their gold run as the men’s eight led from start to finish to defeat Germany’s world champions at Rio’s Lagoa lake – alongside Scott Durant, Tom Ransley, Matt Gotrel, Paul Bennett, Matt Langridge, Will Satch and cox Phelan Hill.
But Triggs Hodge was scathing about a sport which he claims makes little effort to promote itself outside of the Olympics.
He said: “Rowing is pretty amateur in its organisation. You see a lot of other sports where people can really push forward and accelerate yourself.
“Rowing has a knack of keeping people on the same level. All the effort the guys put in, it seems the sport doesn’t really appreciate it.
“Watching from the outside last year, when I was out with illness, it was crushing to see.
“The guys in the eight and the four do so much for this one moment and it only comes every four years. The sport, and those who govern it, needs SAVANNAH MARSHALL says the heartache of a first-round defeat at London 2012 spurred her on to have another crack at Olympic glory in Rio.
The Hartlepool middleweight was stunned by Kazakhstan’s Marina Volnova four years ago – just three months after being crowned Britain’s first female world boxing champion.
But she launches her second Games bid against Swedish veteran Anna Laurell, 36, today.
Marshall said: “I’m more mature now. How many other people can say they’ve been a two-time Olympian at the age of 25?”