Rowing: Showdown at Schinias

By DAVID LEGGAT in Athens

It's 6.30 on a mild morning and New Zealand's Olympic finalists are on the water.

By turn they work their way down the Schinias course at a relatively leisurely pace.

The venue is a hive of activity even before the sun is halfway over the horizon, officials and volunteers performing all the little chores needed before a day's racing.

As rowers from a range of countries troop through the security cordon, not much is said.

It's 48 hours from Olympic finals day.

Not much needs to be said.

The sound system booms out music to suit all tastes - opera, Coldplay's In My Place and Johnny Cash and his Ring of Fire.

On the far side, New Zealand canoeists Steven Ferguson and Ben Fouhy are working away in the outside lane.

First down the course at the head of the five New Zealand rowing crews are Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell. Their strokes are long, slow and exaggerated, checking technique, making sure all the elements are in place.

A couple of lengths of the course and they're done for the day.

It is appropriate that as New Zealand prepares for its best assault on an Olympic regatta finals day - their first 100 per cent success rate at a Games - the Hamilton twins are out in front.

That's the way they have been in the double sculls discipline since the day they won the world title in 2002.

They have not been bettered since then and it would take a brave tipster to plump for anything other than Olympic glory tonight.

The 25-year-olds have done their best to ignore all the talk swirling around. Whenever they fear they are losing focus on the Olympic title they remember Sydney four years ago.

It acts like a cold shower. They didn't make the regatta, narrowly missing qualification. It hurt and they've waited four years to make up for it.

"They control it pretty well," their coach of the past four years, Dick Tonks, told the Herald.

"They get nervous, but don't let it out. From the outside you wouldn't notice."

Tonks has long maintained that they have the class and the consistency to win the gold medal tonight.

Nothing he has seen since they arrived in Europe for their pre-Games buildup has changed that view.

If he does have a worry, it's that they have been penalised for their talent by the format of the Games regatta.

By winning their heat last Saturday, they progressed straight to the final and that meant a week of down-time.

"It's not ideal," Tonks said.

"[World governing body] Fisa has to look at it, so that winning a race doesn't mean you wait a week doing nothing.

"They are a little bit tenser. It's not an easy situation."

In training they have regularly carved out around 200km a week.

They hit their peak of 260km shortly before Athens. Tonks insists no crew in the event will have worked harder, or clocked up more strokes than the sisters.

It's all part of a policy of leaving nothing to chance.

"We keep it simple, just focus on short-term goals," Georgina said.

Two world titles have given them a benchmark for what is needed today.

"We're very fortunate to have been in a position of having crossed the finish line first a couple of times now.

"We know what it took to get there and want that feeling again," Georgina said.

So what of the opposition? Watch for Germany, even without their premier sculler, Kathrin Boron - who has opted out of the double into a four in tacit acknowledgment of the New Zealanders' superiority - Bulgaria and Britain.

"We'd expect Bulgaria will belt out the first 1000m," Tonks said.

"They seem to be as fast as we are to there but have a bit of a battle in the second 1000m.

"Germany and Britain start winding up for the second half. Germany are always good."

Coxless pair Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater impress as the next most likely to grab a medal.

They won their heat impressively and were third-fastest in the semifinals. Tonks maintains that of all the crews, they have made the greatest progress since leaving New Zealand.

If they get on the dais, it'll be a 28th birthday to remember for Twaddle.

Sonia Waddell and coxless pair Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh are, like the men's pair, in lane six on the edge of the course.

Fingers are crossed that they won't be buffeted by cross-winds.

Waddell, who has husband and former Olympic single-scull champion Rob watching from the stands tonight, won her repechage and was fifth-fastest of the semifinalists.

The West End club pair of Coles and Haigh have recovered from taking an unscheduled bath in their heat after Coles "caught a crab" - in rowing terms the blade of her oar getting jammed in the water at the end of the stroke.

"It's not the thing you want to do at the Olympics," Tonks wryly observed. "They've had their ups and downs but did a good race in the end to get there."

The coxless four of Donald Leach, Carl Meyer, Eric Murray and Mahe Drysdale are peaking at the right time.

They finished second in their heat, second in their semi and are right in the mix.

Tonks' tip for a medal count?

A chuckle, then: "I don't want to spoil it for you."

TWO HOURS ON THE WATER

SONIA WADDELL Women's singles sculls, 5.30pm

JULIETTE HAIGH, NICKY COLES Women's pair, 6.10pm

GEORGE BRIDGEWATER, NATHAN TWADDLE

Men's pair, 6.30pm

GEORGINA AND CAROLINE EVERS-SWINDELL

Women's double sculls, 6.50pm

ERIC MURRAY, CARL MEYER, MAHE DRYSDALE, DONALD LEACH

Men's four, 7.30pm