Fierce rivalries and a World Best Time: the men’s pair

The men’s pair has become one of the most hotly contested events in the Olympic rowing regatta. Fierce rivalries between strong rowing nations have captivated the rowing world, and given way to some of the most ferocious battles on the water.

Historically, Great Britain is the most successful nation in the men’s pair at the Olympic Games, having won six gold medals, one silver and one bronze since 1900. Whilst the first British gold medal was won at the London Olympic Games in 1908 by John Fenning and Gordon Thompson, British heavyweight legends Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave won the last gold medal in Atlanta in 1996, beating Australia’s Robert Scott and David Weightman and French pair Jean-Christophe Rolland and Michel Andrieux.

Matthew Pinsent looks back on his time in this boat ‘very positively’.

“Steve and I set about our time in the pair very aggressively towards dominating the field, we felt then we were cutting edge in our approach and very determined to live up to our stated goal of winning back to back golds at the Olympics.”

By 2000, Redgrave and Pinsent had moved in to the men’s four and left the intense rivalries of the men’s pair behind them. Fond memories remain.

“I think the rivalry with the Australians was always strong, and the same with the Germans,” he says. “It was always a pleasure to race them and they were always very sporting in their approach despite wanting to win as much as we did. Lucerne in 1994 was brutal against the Germans [Peter Hoeltzenbein and Thorsten Streppelhoff]. We had to row back from nearly two lengths down and just got through on the line – it was absolutely immense, and my toughest race ever.”

It was certainly not the last the rowing world would see of the dynamic and competitive men’s pair. In 2000, a race many still remember as one of the greatest of all time, Andrieux and Rolland caught the rest of the field ‘napping’ in the third 500m, and orchestrated a burst at 44 strokes a minute which devastated the field and overhauled leaders Great Britain. They held their lead, fighting off fast finishing sprints from Edward Murphy and Sebastian Bea of the United States of America, and Matthew Long and James Tomkins of Australia to cross the line first. 

In the years leading up to Sydney at the World Rowing Championships, the French pair won gold and silver in a very competitive field. Andrieux and Rolland of France won in 1997, Germany won in 1998, and Australia won in 1999. Not one crew could stay on top for long.

The early 2000s were defined again by Matthew Pinsent and new partner James Cracknell. The crew won gold in 2001 and 2002 at World Championship level, even doubling up in the coxed pair in 2001 to secure another gold medal. It was at the 2002 Seville World Rowing Championship that the crew set the World Best Time of 6.14.27, which is still standing today.

However, it was not all plain sailing for the British. The exciting Australian pair of James Tomkins and Drew Ginn dominated the event in 2003, winning at the Milan World Championships over Niksa and Sinisa Skelin of Croatia and Cech and Di Clemente of South Africa. The Brits finished a distant fourth and moved back in to the four for the Athens Olympics Games in 2004.

Ginn and Tomkin’s domination of the event culminated in Olympic glory in Athens, with Croatia and South Africa completing the medal podium respectively. Ginn began the next Olympic cycle with renewed vigour and a new partner, Duncan Free.

Free remarked, “The three years I was in the pair with Drew was something new for me coming from a sculling background. It was the fresh start that I needed. Drew and I made sure we had fun with it, and tried to set new standards.”

In the years that followed, new crews came to the fore of men’s pair racing. New Zealand’s Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater often challenged for a place on top of the podium, winning the World Rowing Championships in 2005.

Come the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Ginn and Free were at the top of their game. Despite growing concerns over pain in Ginn’s back, the pair’s assault on the Shunyi Olympic Rowing Park culminated in another Olympic gold for Ginn, and the first for Duncan Free.

“Crossing that line was a moment I'll never forget. We had a pretty good race considering Drew's back injury,” Free recalls.

Both men, having made recent comebacks from injury, are now concentrating all their efforts in the men’s four this summer and will watch the drama of the men’s pair unfold with keen interest from the grandstand.

If one was to think of the men’s pair now, one of the most captivating rivalries in rowing in recent years would come to mind: Great Britain and New Zealand. Both crews, emerging from the men’s four after Beijing, would face each other in the men’s pair for the following three years.

Andy Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed of Great Britain were gold medallists in Beijing.

Triggs-Hodge believes: “The four took huge steps towards Beijing, physically, technically and mentally.  With that successful campaign behind us we wanted to push ourselves further and in the nature of being in a pair, it would expose us completely to our faults and shortcomings, thus giving us every opportunity to find the areas we needed to improve and better ourselves.”

However, they were not to enjoy the golden moments that so often accompany Great British rowing crews. Dubbed ‘the Kiwi Pair’, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, who had tasted the bitter taste of defeat in the men’s four in Beijing finishing a disappointing seventh despite being the reigning World Champions, were set to redefine men’s pair rowing. Since 2009, Great Britain have lost to the New Zealand pair each time they have faced each other.

Triggs-Hodge looks back on this intense rivalry with real perspective: “They have been 'the' world class pair.  However I'm very proud of the way I've played out my role in this rivalry, always pushing myself, and never rolling over.  I'm certainly a stronger athlete for the last few years, and I wouldn't swap them for anything.”

Margins of defeat have ranged from seven seconds to 0.3 of a second. The closest race was to come at the 2010 World Rowing Championships in Karapiro, New Zealand. New Zealand had the chance to win on home water. Or the British could cause a real upset.

Hodge recalls: “We set about our training, with very high standards, and discovered what we were actually capable of.  We were able to work with this pressure to produce one of our best races.  I'm just sorry we couldn't beat them on their home water. Of all the races over the last three years, this was the one to do it!”

Following in the footsteps of Pinsent and Cracknell, who were not guaranteed gold in the men’s pair in Athens and subsequently moved in to the men’s four, the future of the British crew is now being questioned.

Pinsent remarked: “For the GB Rowing Team, winning is far better than multiple medals. Coach Jürgen Grobler has prioritised one boat over any other since he became chief coach and it is paying dividends.”

“I think the Kiwi pair are very strong, perhaps technically the best for a generation – but they still have to get across the line first in London. To row for gold is always tough.”

If the British pair were to bow out of the men’s pair in London, the Greek brothers Nikolaos and Apostolos Gkountoulas, the Canadians Calder and Frandsen who won silver in Beijing 2008, and the Italians Lorenzo Bertini and Niccolo Mornati, who are all regularly seen on the podium, would step up to challenge the New Zealand pair. German pair Maximilian Munski and Felix Drahotta often complete the line-up in the A-final.

Free commented: “Currently the men’s pair standard is very high. New Zealand are dominating the event and going fast.”

Indeed, in Slovenia, Murray and Bond came within milliseconds of breaking Pinsent and Cracknell’s World Best Time, recording 6:14.77. Hodge and Reed were not far behind in a time of 6:16.27, the fastest time they have ever done in a pair.

In a recent poll on www.worldrowing.com, you voted the men’s pair as the most likely boat to break the World Best Time this year. Pinsent sportingly agrees.

“It very nearly went in Bled, in not the fastest of conditions. In Seville, it was hard to imagine a stronger wind behind us – I have seldom raced in conditions that conducive to going fast. The record will go, I’m just not sure when. I’d like to see it go to a good pair, and if that’s the Kiwis, then hats off to them.”

The men’s pair is a boat steeped in Olympic history, and the event has provided the rowing audience with some of the greatest races of the rowing regatta. Spiralling questions arise. Will we see a new British pair facing the rest of the field? Will the Greeks beat the Italians? Can Canada make the podium again? Will the New Zealand pair finally beat the World Best Time? All eyes now rest on Eton Dorney Lake, Great Britain, for the answers.

Did you know?

Slovenia won its first ever Olympic medal in the men’s pair at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Iztok Cop and Dennis Zvegelj won bronze for Slovenia, Peter Hoeltzenbein and Colin Von Ettingshausen of Germany won silver, and Matthew Pinsent and Steven Redgrave won gold.

The M2- was introduced to the Olympic programme in 1904 and first raced in St. Louis, the United States of America. The United States of America won.

United States of America are second in the men’s pair Olympic medal table. They have won three golds, four silver, and two bronze medals. They first won gold in 1904, and the last medal was won by Murphy and Bea in 2000.

A total of 63 Olympic medals have been awarded in the men’s pair since 1904: 22 gold, 21 silver and 20 bronze.

 

Olympic Medal Table

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	First Medal	Last Medal
1	Great Britain	6	1	1	8	1908	1996
2	East Germany	4	0	0	4	1968	1980
3	United States	3	4	2	9	1904	2000
4	Australia	2	1	1	4	1996	2008
4	Germany	2	1	1	4	1928	1992
6	Soviet Union	1	2	0	3	1956	1980
7	France	1	1	1	3	1924	2000
7	Netherlands	1	1	1	3	1924	1972
9	Canada	1	1	0	2	1964	2008
9	Romania	1	1	0	2	1984	1988
11	Switzerland	0	2	1	3	1948	1972
12	Austria	0	1	1	2	1956	1960
12	Denmark	0	1	1	2	1936	1968
12	New Zealand	0	1	1	2	1932	2008
15	Belgium	0	1	0	1	1952	1952
15	Croatia	0	1	0	1	2004	2004
15	Spain	0	1	0	1	1984	1984
18	Argentina	0	0	1	1	1936	1936
18	Finland	0	0	1	1	1960	1960
18	Italy	0	0	1	1	1948	1948
18	Norway	0	0	1	1	1984	1984
18	Poland	0	0	1	1	1932	1932
18	Slovenia	0	0	1	1	1992	1992
18	South Africa	0	0	1	1	2004	2004
18	West Germany	0	0	1	1	1976	1976
18	Yugoslavia	0	0	1	1	1988	1988