Saturday September 12th 1998

Three golds, a silver too

A fours final with four crews under 5 mins 50 secs and a photo for second place was a grand finale to the first day of finals at the World Championships on Saturday. Messrs Cracknell, Redgrave, Foster and Pinsent did the business, but this unquestionably the hardest race of their career, with the Italian boat possibly pushing his bowball in front at one stage, although the split times show GB in front all the way. Romania was the early challenger, Italy with two world record holders on board took it up, and then France came from fifth at 500m to snatch the silver medal in 5:49.44, behind GB at 5:48.06 and ahead of Italy at 5:49.46. A howling following wind helped, and Steve Redgrave expressed disappointment that they had not bested the world's best time.

James Cracknell said that he had only finished closer to someone else's bowball in Paris last year. It was a race that took the puff out of him, probably with the three little lifts they did in the last 200 metres to ensure that neither pursuer got more than half a canvas overlap.

Double scullers Miriam Batten and Gillian Lindsay went off like a rocket to give the Dutch a fright, and were so far out that commentator Paul Castle queried their wisdom. At halfway they were well under the world's best time, but couldn't sustain it. No problem with that, however, because the Netherlanders Van Dishoeck and Van Nes were unable to catch them even though they closed the gap from three seconds at 1000m to one at the finish. Asked if she would retire after her forthcoming wedding, 31-year-old Miriam said "No, I have to go on now."

The third gold came from the women's lightweight pair Juliet Machin and substitute Jo Nitsch, comfortably ahead all the way. Machin, delighted with her medal, said that she was disappointed that there were only four entries, especially when there was so much lightweight competition in Britain. She defended the event because it is the only boat class for rowing in the world programme.

Dot Blackie and Cath Bishop won silver in their first world final by racing to 1000m to keep in touch with the rest and then racing to 2000m to knock them off. The Canadians Emma Robinson and Alison Korn had the gold medal locked away, but Blackie and Bishop got closer to them than they had at Lucerne. "There's still something to work on," said a delighted Blackie.

The strong tailwind made conditions difficult for small boats - " the water was really nasty," said Blackie. Peter Haining reckoned it was worse in lane six, his lane, protesting at the end of the race in which he finished fifth. Stefano Basalini came right through the feild to win, with the Czech Michal Vabrousek second and the 1996-97 champion Karsten Nielsen of Denmark third. Haining led to 500m despite his lane, the Aussie Hamish Karrash was leading at 1000m and Basalino by 1500m.

The open singles developed into a medal competition between the Olympic champion Xeno Mueller, the Czech Vaclav Chalupa whose long career has won sculling world cups but not a gold medal, and the Kiwi Rob "V12" Waddell, a rising star among rising stars. It came out right for Waddell, second best for Mueller and worst for poor old Chalupa. Greg Searle was three seconds behind the leader at halfway but slipped to fifth and 12 seconds behind at the finish. Iztok Cop was fourth and Ali Ibrahim Ali sixth.

Katrin Rutschow led Guin Batten's race for three quarters of the way before Irina Fedotova of Russia did what everyone expected of her, move in front and become a popular gold medalist. Rutschow was second and Maria Brandin took the bronze after lying last at halfway. Batten raced well and was third at 1000m with Roumiana Nejkova, Trine Hansen and Brandin behind her. She just missed fifth place to Hansen.

The lightweight eight made the early running and it seemed as if they had picked themselves up from a bad week. In a thrilling race they were squeezed out of the medals eventually after being in gold position at halfway and bronze position at 1500m. A fraction of a second separated the Germans, Americans and Italians in that order.

Stephen Williams and Fred Scarlett gave there all in the coxless pairs but had to settle for sixth place all the way. However, their presence in the final is something to celebrate.

The Australian Oarsome Foursome all picked up a medal, although not in the same boat. Green and Tomkins struck gold in the coxed pairs and McKay and Ginn silver behind Germany's Sens and Kirchhoff in the coxless.

Link to summarised results.
Worlds 1998 website.
FISA website.

© Copyright Christopher Dodd, 1998.