Love won’t stand in way of Olympic ambition
Three oar wielders to tie the knot between the Cup and Games
● Clouds of anticipation hang over the South African rowing armada of four boats that will do battle on Belgrade’s Sava Lake from Friday to Sunday.
On the one hand new combinations are looking to prove themselves at their first World Cup regatta, and then in the precious little private time the rowers get, three senior members are planning weddings.
John Smith, a former Olympic and world champion, is tying the knot in September; reigning world lightweight single sculls champion Kirsten McCann will walk down the aisle in October; and Rio Games silver medallist Lawrence Brittain, out of action as he makes his way back from injury, heads to the altar in December.
But love won’t stand in the way of their Olympic ambition as they aim for Tokyo 2020.
With European outfits unleashing their big guns, the season’s opening World Cup regatta in Serbia will give national coach Roger Barrow a good idea of where his teams are.
His major goal is getting the crews ready for Olympic qualification next year, where the cut-off ranges from top eight to 11 at the 2019 world championships.
And there are no guarantees. McCann’s world crown from 2017 counts for nothing because the lightweight single scull class is not on the Olympic roster.
McCann has to return to the double where she and Ursula Grobler, who has since retired, ended fifth at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The 29-year-old has teamed up with Nicole van Wyk, 23, and she’s ensuring there’s no pressure on her partner, who admitted starting with some trepidation.
“I think in the beginning, yes,” said Van Wyk. “But now I think that we’re so focused on what we’re doing as a team that I haven’t really focused on who’s done what . . . rather where we can go as a team.”
McCann has effectively shed her worldchampion status, insisting they’re on a par. “Last season was last season, so we start a clean slate and we’re equals in the boat and we both bring something unique.
“Nicole’s really good in the stroke seat, she’s got incredible rhythm and there’s different aspects of stroke where she’s really sharp and on point and I maybe need to be better . . . We’ve slotted in well together.”
On the ergo machine McCann is superior, but she insists that’s not a critical factor. “It’s one thing saying you can be fast on the ergo, but it’s about what we’re doing in the boat . . . what we’re putting down on the water.”
The Dutch are likely to be the team to beat, with one of the Olympic champion double scullers teaming up with the world under-23 champion who beat Van Wyk into the minor medals the previous two years.
The heavyweight men make up the other three crews of one four and two pairs. At the Rio Olympics the pair finished second and the four a painful fourth.
But at this stage, two years out from the Games, the SA heavyweights are in a stronger position than they were in 2014, when they numbered only four.
Now there are 10, including youngsters like Kyle Schoonbee, who at 22 can already do 2km on the rowing machine in under six minutes, though he’s making the transition from sculls, using two blades, to the single sweep oar.
“It’s hard to make predictions early, things change quickly, but one thing I can say is where the squad as a whole is this year compared to where it was in 2014 . . . is miles apart,” says David Hunt, who ended fourth in Rio and again at the World Cup last year.
“We are much stronger as a squad.”
The SA four in Belgrade, which also includes 20-year-old Sandro Torrente, are not as tall nor as heavy as the one in Rio, with three of the rowers under 90kg.
“[In Rio] we really based a lot of what we did on our length and rowing the longest, most effective stroke and we really had to attack the middle of the race because we knew that, with the athletes that we had, our strength probably wasn’t sprinting,” says Hunt.
Now the attack comes at the end.
“We have to think a lot, we’ve got to push the technique,” adds Smith, a former lightweight who tips the scale at just 80kg.
Nicole’s really good in the stroke seat, she’s got incredible rhythm. . . We’ve slotted in well
Kirsten McCann
Lightweight single sculls champ