Row: Mixed fortunes for Australia's rowers in Athens

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2004
Row: Mixed fortunes for Australia's rowers in Athens

By Jordan Baker

ATHENS, Aug 28 AAP - Rowing Australia will have plenty to think about as it overhauls
its coaching program in the wake of a disappointing and controversial Olympic campaign.

Rowers were hoping the 2004 Games would spark a return to the glory days of the 1990s,
when the Oarsome Foursome reigned and Australia collected two golds per Games.

But the sport picked up four instead of its predicted five to six medals - one gold,
one silver and two bronze - which was less than the three silver and two bronze collected
in Sydney.

The regatta ended on a sour note when exhaustion forced 23-year-old women's eight crew
member Sally Robbins to stop rowing mid-race, sparking public criticism from her teammates.

Debate raged over whether Robbins could and should have kept rowing, whether her team
mates were wrong to criticise her, and whether Rowing Australia should have handled the
situation after the race better.

Some in the rowing fraternity have also criticised women's head coach Harald Jahrling,
saying he should have stayed on in Athens to deal with the wash-up.

Jahrling led the women to world championship wins in 2001, 2002 and 2003 but the only
medal they picked up in Athens was bronze thanks to a doping violation by a member of
the third-placed Ukrainian team.

Before Athens, Rowing Australia was already planning to re-structure the coaching team
by appointing an overall national director instead of men's and women's head coaches.

The national director's position has been advertised and interviews were underway,
although media reports suggest Jahrling might be looking to move back to Germany.

Once the director has been appointed - men's head coach Noel Donaldson is in the running
- the task of reviewing the team's performance in Athens begins, said team manager Wayne
Diplock.

At least one thing is likely to remain the same; the strategy introduced after 2000
of priority boats, in which the best rowers are concentrated in selected boats to maximise
the team's chances of winning gold medals.

Donaldson, who once coached the Oarsome Foursome, said the tactic would be the way
of the future for many countries as the standard of the Olympic regatta continues to improve.

"The days of one country winning seven or eight medals are well and truly gone," Donaldson said.

Oarsome foursome veterans Drew Ginn and James Tomkins did their bit to back up the
priority theory when they broke an eight-year Olympic gold medal drought in the pairs.

The victory made Tomkins the most successful rower in Australian history, with three
Olympic gold medals and seven world championship wins, and he has not ruled out a tilt
at Beijing.

The lightweight four had been hoping for gold after finishing second in Sydney, but
Simon Burgess, Ben Cureton, Anthony Edwards and Glen Loftus won silver again, bowing to
the dominant Danes.

Loftus, Edwards and Tasmanian apple farmer Burgess will retire.

The talent-laden men's eight, which included the Stewart brothers (Geoff, James and
Stephen), Bo Hanson, Stuart Reside and Oarsome Foursome veteran Mike McKay, took bronze.

The men's eight was a wildcard, as it had never rowed internationally as a crew, but
the veterans were still disappointed.

"We didn't come here to end up third," said McKay.

McKay's disappointment paled in comparison to that of Robbins and the women's eight,
who finished 10 seconds behind the second-last boat after Robbins collapsed.

"I just rowed my guts out in the first 1,500 and didn't have anything left," she said,
adding later that it felt as if her arms were paralysed.

The decision to select her may also be looked at again as it was not the first time
it had happened to her in a big race.

Two of the seven crews to make the finals finished fourth, including the women's lightweight
double sculls combination of Amber Halliday and Sally Newmarch, which set a world's best
time in the heats.

The world champion women's quad scull crew of Kerry Hore, Rebecca Sattin, Amber Bradley
and Dana Faletic picked up a bronze medal after the regatta due to the doping test.

AAP jb/nh

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