Issue 111 - August/September 1998

What your right arm's for

Tearing a hand through glass sharply couldn't happen to a nicer bloke or a better oarsman than Tim Foster, the 28-year-old No 3 man in Britain's four. His throwaway gesture at an Oxford party put him out of the boat for ten weeks and gave us all heart tremors. He lost two pints of blood, couldn't open a bottle or a can, couldn't cut bread. Would he be back? Could they make up lost ground? Could a substitute be found?

After Henley and Lucerne we now know that the last question does not arise, and they know more about themselves. They realised that they may have become a little complaicent after a first unbeaten year. Foster learned how important the group is. Getting back into his seat was a small step after weeks of cycling and lifting weights with the aid of an inner tube as a pulley, he said. The big step was getting back into the group. Ripping tendons in a hand gave a whole new meaning to in and out.

So the season had to start a second time for the 1997 world champions and World Cup holders, on Henley Saturday in a semi-final against the Oarsome Foursome, twice Olympic champions but second in Australia's selection process. Both crews were nervous on the start, no question about that. There followed an absolute belter, with one umpire's warning to Leander, a shade of overadjustment which brought the booms momentorily rather close, and a steady application of power which answered the Oarsome's move somewhere around Remenham. And not a wince to be seen on Foster's face. It went so well that Pinsent raised his arm long before the line was crossed. 'I didn't realise Pinsent was such a juvenile,' said umpire Sweeney. 'If he'd caught a crab he'd have lost the race.' The stroke's excuse was 'the exuberance of the moment'. 'They were a good scalp,' he said.

That put the Leander four into a final against the Danish lightweights, Olympic and world champions and very fast. It was an honourable match, well rowed and well fought, with the heavyweights beating the lights and honour satisfied on both sides, as they told Prince Philip when he met them by the boat tents. 'We are happy we are so close, and we are happy they are not our real opponents,' said stroke Victor Feddersen.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief: Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster were back in business. Coach Grobler permitted himself the smile which had evaded him for a long time.

And so to Lucerne for the real World Cup final, on the same day as the fantasy one between France and Brazil. Here were the Romanians who had beaten 'Cracknell, Foster and a couple of other guys' in the words of commentator Paul Castle in the first round in Munich, the Aussies Geoffrey Stewart, Bo Hanson, Ben Dodwell and James Stewart who had won the second round in Hazewinkel, and the Germans and Poles who had also been ahead in Munich. The start was delayed for an hour and a half while the Norwegians repaired their damaged rudder. Redgrave the diabetic would have more blood sugar in his system than planned because he can't take insulin just before racing. No matter, said your man. Everyone has to warm down and warm up again.

The first stroke put their bowball a fraction ahead and they took the field apart. They recorded the quickest time between each pair of distance markers, consistently inching their boat ahead until the Aussies were left for dead and clear water appeared between the Brits and tenacious Romanians. The rest were out of sight. After the line was crossed and before the customary quick turnaround, one arm soared skywards. This time it was Foster's outside arm, the right one, with all muscles and tendons except the thumb back on form. Winning on the Rotsee. That's what your right arm's for.

© Copyright Chris Dodd, 1998.