Hamish Bond keen to share glow

Hamish Bond (right), with Eric Murray, is happy to let racegoers savour his spoils. Photo / AP

The chance of a medal, let alone gold, returning to Hawke's Bay pretty much rests on the young shoulders of kayaker Aimee Fisher whose campaign will be dusted on Sunday.

But the province need not despair because rowing double gold medallist Hamish Bond is only too happy to pass his medal around here only days after returning to New Zealand from the Rio Olympics.

"It's always in our minds that we have to share it around and try to share the glow," Bond said yesterday from the Games Village in Rio after he and Bay-born Eric Murray retained their men's Olympic pairs crown early Saturday morning (NZ time).

The 30-year-old from Waikato and explosive Black Sticks midfielder Anita McLaren (nee Punt) will be guests at the at the Makfi Challenge Stakes Daffodil Day - the first leg of the three-meeting Bostock NZ Spring Racing Carnival - on August 27 to promote and help raise funds for the Bay branch of the New Zealand Cancer Society.

Bond, who had barely slept for 10 hours in three days since stepping down from the podium due to media and other commitments, said Daffodil Raceday was "a great cause and charity".

"I'm happy to come down on the raceday and help with the fundraising effort," he said, revealing his wife, Lizzie, a general practitioner, who watched him compete but had cut it fine in leaving Rio to return to work, was also likely to be here with him.

He and Murray are part owners of thoroughbred horse Aotearower and have been "calm observers", rather than taking an "active interest" in racing.

While it hasn't been easy to move between the Olympic village and the city, he has been spending some time with his parents, Shirley and Graeme Bond, who have watched him compete.

Bond said Murray would have joined him in Hastings for the meeting but, after a demanding Olympic campaign, had decided to spend some time with his family.

While Murray had had a crash while training on his bike, Bond said it had not in any way jeopardised their build up.

"It was nothing serious. It could have been a lot worse."

Asked if Rio has been more distracting than the previous Olympics he had competed at, the multiple world championship title holder said "in all honesty, the only obstacle was the weather [choppy waters] for a couple of days".

"There were issues with the water quality so we took precautions but the organisers did a good job of cleaning up."

Bond said the Zika virus yarns were basically media concoctions "and not the real story".

"I have still seen no mosquitoes.

"We have like one in a half-million chance of catching Zika but 100 times more chances of just getting sick.

"It's an emotive story and the media make up that sort of thing. Deformed babies make for an emotive topic."

He and Murray had exceeded their own expectations at Rio.

"How it played out was a testament to ... oh, I don't know to what ... I suppose it was just good attitude, hard work and a bit of luck on the day went our way."

Whether he and Murray would continue or different boats would beckon "isn't even on the table yet".

"We've turned the page after the Rio achievement so we're not thinking about every movement every day," he said, not ruling out retirement either for that matter.

Bond said he had seen some superstars, such as sprinter Usain Bolt, tennis ace Novak Djokovic and some NBA basketballers, at the Games Village food halls but chose to "give them some peace" because, like him, they had tasks to perform.