48 hours: Ultra-disciplined rowers far from robotic

By RICHARD BOOCK

What is it about rowing? For a sport that demands an almost robotic sense of discipline and thought, it continues to produce some of New Zealand's most colourful sporting chapters.

It was more of the same in Athens, when Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell continued the country's 24-carat Olympic rowing history with their gruelling win.

Pushing aside an almost-objectionable amount of media hype, the twins mastered an unpredictable course and a charging finish from Germany to do what the All Blacks had been attempting to do for years. They lived up to their expectations.

Throughout their career, the pair have talked about the need to concentrate on the small steps in order to climb the ladder, and the risk of an untimely mishap if they were to look too far ahead. They knew all about disappointment after failing to qualify at Sydney, and had been meticulous in their preparation for Athens.

For the past two years they won every major race they contested, and even though they started to lose momentum at the end on Saturday night, were deserved winners after leading throughout.

It must take a certain type of person to be a champion rower. Focus, technique, the sort of strength that made Popeye famous and the temperament of a domestic appliance. Sort of like running a marathon in a telephone box.

But going by the number of amusing anecdotes that surround the sport, there are some definite characters behind those intense masks of concentration.

Take the twins as an example. Georgina maintained last year that she started rowing only after noticing Caroline's success: "As soon as she started doing well I decided it must be easy and became involved as well."

Predictably, it was a shade more challenging than she expected.

Then there was the story behind New Zealand's first rowing medallist, Darcy Hadfield, who won a bronze in the single sculls at the 1920 Antwerp Games. Before taking up the sport seriously, Hadfield apparently cut his teeth by helping row a 14ft clinker about 35 miles across Tasman Bay.

At the 1932 Los Angeles Games, Fred Thompson and Bob Stiles might have even managed better than their silver but for a broken stay on their stroke-rigger as they were charging at the eventual winners, Great Britain.

And it would have been difficult to predict New Zealand's first rowing gold at the 1968 Mexico Games, if you had to make your decision six months out from the start of the regatta.

The coxed four of Warren Cole, Ross Collinge, Dudley Storey and Dick Joyce hadn't been together long and actually fell out of their boat at their first training session in Christchurch.

But for sheer emotion, not to mention the worst hairstyles in Olympic history, it would be impossible to go past the eight's success at Munich, when New Zealand left the fancied American, Russian and East German crews in their wake.

Since then, the coxless fours won gold in 1984 at Los Angeles and Rob Waddell turned in that machine-like performance while winning the single sculls at Sydney.

The only missing link in New Zealand's rich history of Olympic rowing had been a women's gold medal. The Twins have fixed that.

High point

Bay of Plenty's successful shield defence against Waikato. Not only more great rugby history, but also valuable championship points for the Bay.

Low point

New Zealand cyclist Anthony Peden's withdrawal from Athens under a drug doping cloud. Unfortunate certainly, untimely no doubt - but above all messy and unprofessional.