Rowing: Pair forced to change pace

Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown. Photo / Christine Cornege

It has been a mixed bag at the Henley Royal Regatta for the New Zealand women's pair.

After winning their opening World Cup event racing together for the first time in Munich, Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown have had to be content with training instead of competing on the River Thames.

There is no women's pair event at Henley but Haigh and Scown had hoped to join forces in a quad boat with women's double scullers Anna Reymer and Fiona Paterson.

However, Reymer injured her back and Paterson has moved into the main quad boat while usual crew member Harriet Austin recovers from a stress fracture to her ribs.

The pair had then hoped to use the Dorney Lake course just down the road to get valuable practice dealing with the infamous cross wind that could haunt crews at the London Olympics. But the course is closed because it is being set up for the swim leg of a triathlon.

However, the pair have had the pleasure of training down river from Henley, rowing from Eton to Maidenhead taking in scenes that inspired author Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.

They have also indulged in a cream tea within the prestigious Steward's Enclosure while watching their team-mates sweat it out on the course in the current fine spell of British weather.

Still, being rowers, their work ethic means they were quick to sit back on their stiff, movable boat seats rather than nestle into the plush, cushioned thrones designed for royalty at Henley.

"At first I was a bit sad I couldn't race," Haigh says. "It would have been a good chance to build on our opening win at Munich but we now need to get ready to race [Bled World Cup winners] Canada and the defending world champions from the United States."

Scown has also made that memory of sitting down to jam and scones a fleeting one.

Her thoughts have already gone back to racing: "We are yet to do any real speed work and our coach John Robinson is working on making our catch sharper [when the oar blade hits the water]."

The pair cannot train all the time so they have been organising some constructive activities to while away the leisure hours. A knitting circle has started among their women team-mates with the objective of making a blanket by the end of the tour - although a number are apparently struggling with quality control.

The pair have also set up their own website 1boat2girls.co.nz where they offer advice to young secondary school rowers who write in, as well as advertise their favourite recipes including prawn curry and vegetable slice (with optional bacon).

Yet somehow, even in their down time, the focus turns back to the boat as they contemplate racing for world championship gold in early November on Lake Karapiro.

"A number of the team sat down recently to watch the documentary Pieces of Eight which shows the Kiwi rowers preparing for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles," Haigh says.

New Zealand won a gold in the men's coxless four and a bronze with the coxed four at that regatta while the men's eight - who had won the previous two championships - slipped to fourth.

"I enjoyed it and even found it inspiring watching some of those faces from the past generation who are still involved in rowing today.

"It was great to see that they went through what we do, yet they held down full-time jobs and a number had families."

Other New Zealand crews' fortunes have been mixed in the racing at Henley, with semifinals held overnight.

The newly-formed eight overcame the Cambridge crew that beat Oxford in The Boat Race this year, while Mahe Drysdale, the men's pair, the lightweight men's pair and the women's quadruple sculls crews made it through.

However, single sculler Duncan Grant, former coxless four crew member Carl Meyer and the men's double were ousted. Emma Twigg won her heat but withdrew on medical grounds. The men's quad raced for the first time overnight.