Rowing: Supreme Redgrave's last hurrah

Had he trailed a sign in the sky above the Penrith Lakes, Steve Redgrave could not have made his message more plain: race for silver if you like; the gold is gone, again.

Two more victories - a further 4000m on the clock - now lie between Redgrave, Olympic immortality and the blessed relief of retirement. After a traumatic four years of preparation, it is debatable which would be the greater cause for celebration.

Victory in the opening heat of the coxless fours was thoroughly expected. The commanding manner of it, by a boat-length over the fancied Australians, less so. Two months ago, after a spectacularly heavy defeat in the final World Cup regatta at Lucerne, the four's plans were in disarray and Redgrave's own personal quest for a fifth gold medal had turned from a gentle row on the Serpentine into a mission impossible. At the time, his reaction seemed to owe more to bravura than logic.

"When we come out and dominate everyone in the heats at the Olympics, it will be too late for anyone else to do anything about it," he said.

That was spin-doctoring worthy of Downing St. But the words ring more true after a controlled row which had the Matthew Pinsent/Redgrave British trademark stamped all over it.

Particularly pleasing was the way they answered the Australians over the final 500m. The pattern of recent races, notably in Munich and Lucerne, has suggested a lack of concentration or just plain fatigue in the critical final stages of a race. But when the Australian crew pushed, the British four - Pinsent, Redgrave, Tim Foster and James Cracknell - responded impressively and a 3.45s margin of victory did not flatter the winners unduly.

"They think we've got a weak link over the last 500m," Redgrave said. "A lot of crews here think that and that gives us motivation. The Australians will push hard over the last stretch and they think we're going to break. But we're not."

Though qualifying times can be deceptive, the British four were comfortably quicker than the Italians and the French, winners of the other two heats.

"Our minds are pretty focused," Redgrave added. "After Lucerne, we didn't have to panic. We went back to exactly the same format we had before, exactly the same as Matt and I did. It worked then. You don't lose the formula overnight."

Pinsent put the shock of Lucerne into more stark relief.

"After the race we had a week off, which had always been planned," he said. "We'd found out that we were capable of losing the Olympics and during that week I think we all re-found our determination to win it. We found things we wanted to change, but, more importantly, we found things that we wanted to keep the same.

"We trained angry that we lost, but when the anger went away, there was still a steely edge to our training all the way through camps, up on the Gold Coast and even here. We're racing as well now as we have done in this combination, but we still want more."

In a calculated statement of intent, the four took on the rest of the field straight from the start. By the time the crews had settled into a rhythm, the light blue British boat was a canvas ahead, by halfway the lead was 1.5s. Times of 1m 31.99s and 1m 31.69s for the middle 1000m of the race reflected the consistency of the fours work-rate.



The crew will race again in the semifinal on Thursday, with the final chapter in Redgrave's unique Olympic history due to be written on Saturday.

Inevitably, Redgrave will absorb most of the attention, but it would not be a total surprise if a shaft of the limelight fell on the pair commanded to guard an old British protectorate.

Not since 1984 has Britain lost Olympic gold in the coxless pairs and an impressive victory for Greg Searle and Ed Coode brought further encouragement to the British squad. The pair led from start to finish, matching the four for consistency, power and composure, and once again, relegating the Australians to the role of fall guys.

The one difference was that the pair showed their delight at the finish, punching the air as if the gold medal was already round their necks.

But, after a frustrating season in a new and largely untested pair, the excitement was understandable.

Though for most of the season Coode has been the stroke, the pair switched round in late summer, with Searle moving to stroke, and the boat immediately found more speed.

This Olympics might come just too early for the pair to win gold. The fear was that the Games would come a fraction too late for the ultimate Olympian.

One down, two to go.

- INDEPENDENT