Rowing: Making the final reward enough for Waddell

By DAVID LEGGAT - ATHENS

They were simple words, which in another setting could have sounded trite.

But Sonia Waddell invested them with real feeling after her fifth placing in the final of the women's single sculls at the Olympic regatta on Lake Schinias.

She was never better than fourth down the 2000m stretch and clocked 7m 31.66s, 13.54s behind the impressive winner, Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany.

Waddell, with husband and Sydney Olympic single sculling champion Rob Waddell watching from the stands, was the only member of the New Zealand squad not making an Olympics debut.

She was sixth in the Sydney final and although she was determined to get on the medal dais in Athens, she held her head high afterwards.

"I gave it my absolute best shot and that makes me very satisfied.

"I really thought I had a realistic chance of a medal, but I didn't quite strike it right this week."

She was 8.56s behind the third placegetter, Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria.

The standard of women's sculling has shot up since Sydney, Waddell added. Her final field included Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch, a double Olympic and world champion, who came second; Rutschow-Stomporowski, the three-time world champion; and Neykova, the Sydney Games silver medallist.

Yet Waddell had produced world-class times throughout her season. It was clearly a high-class event.

Waddell was coy on the question of whether this would be the end of her career. Reading between the lines, don't bet on the 31-year-old being in Beijing in 2008.

"In some ways I would like to keep going, but in some ways it's a nice way to finish.

"I'll take some time to reflect on things.

"But if I do decide to stop I've done my best and gone as fast as I could possibly go."

And while the rest of the rowing squad were left with a few days to unwind and celebrate their five-from-five finals achievement, it is a different story for Waddell.

"I've got mum duties at home, so I'm off first thing Monday morning," she said, her thoughts turning to Sophie, soon to be 2 and their home in Cambridge.

The other rower whose career may have been ending, coxless pair bowman Nathan Twaddle, said he is not done yet.

Twaddle and young strongman George Bridgewater had to settle for an agonising fourth after a cliffhanger battle with South Africa.

Saturday could have been a memorable 28th birthday for the Auckland rower. They were just .84s behind Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente at the finish of a race narrowly won by Australians Drew Ginn and James Tomkins, with Croatia second.

"We'll keep going. It's the Olympics - but there's always another one," Twaddle said.

"I'm rapt. No one had any expectations of us before we came here.

"To get up and frighten a few people was pretty pleasing but you always want to go out on high note."

Of the other two finalists, the coxless four of Donald Leach, Mahe Drysdale, Carl Meyer and Eric Murray found the decider one race too far. They were 3s off the pace at the 1000m mark and at the finish were fifth, 8.49s behind winners Great Britain.

They had the satisfaction of having done better than many pundits predicted before the Games and were involved in the closest final of the day - although they did not see it as they were facing the wrong way.

Britain held off Canada in a thriller by .08s. That meant a fourth gold medal for stroke Matthew Pinsent and a second for James Cracknell.

The New Zealand coxless pair of Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles were sixth and last in their final, 16.97s behind winners Romania.

The combination from Auckland's West End club were 3s off the pace at the 500m mark and could not peg back the gap.

But their real satisfaction came from having made a final after winning a late place at the final qualifying regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, in June.