SA rowers all set to ‘entertain’
RIO DE JANEIRO: “Hope to entertain.” With those words Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain left the media something to chew on as they prepare for their men’s pair final tomorrow.
The duo turned in a confident performance in their semi-final, finishing third to march into the final.
Qualifying for the final was quite a feat, particularly for Brittain, who had beaten cancer after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease less than two years ago.
“It is awesome, the stressful day was today, you don’t want to put in four years of work and end up in a B-final,” Brittain said. “We’ve done all of the big work and now we are in an A final and it is bonus time from here.”
Lining up against defending Olympic champions Kiwi pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, the South Africans held them at arm’s length for most of the race, rowing in second place.
The duo saved their energy over the sprint, allowing the British boat to pass them to secure a berth in the final with a third-place finish.
“We needed to have a big sprint to beat the other crews, and we needed to be in the top three,” Brittain said. “Obviously on Thursday (tomorrow) it is about coming first, and hopefully the sprint towards the end will put us back into the mix.”
Winning a medal will not be easy, and winning the gold may seem near impossible racing against the New Zealanders. Bond and Murray have not lost a single race since they were 3pm, SS2
TEAM SA IN RIO TODAY
Lee-Anne Persse and Kate Christowitz, semi-final coxless pairs, 1.30pm Ursula Grobler and Kirsten McCann, semi-final lightweight double sculls, 1.50pm Jack Piontek, Round of 32, under 90kg, 3.35pm South Africa v Australia 4.30pm South Africa v Iraq, 3am (tomorrow)
put together in a boat in 2009.
The gritty South African crew would not be intimidated, and gave themselves as good a chance as any of the other five boats. “Obviously we want to win, we always say you can’t win a medal from a B-final,” Keeling said. “We have the first step done and we had a really good three-quarter of the race where we’ve executed possibly the best 1 500m that we’ve done.” Keeling said they needed to make a few adjustments to give them the best possible chance of winning a medal.
“We just need to tweak it in the last little bit to make sure we can be in the mix for a medal. It is about momentum,” Keeling said.
Meanwhile, the men’s four boat of Jake Green, Vincent Breet, David Hunt and Jonty Smith made amends for a below-par row in Monday’s heats.
They claimed a confidence-boosting victory in the repechage to earn a place in today’s semi-final.