30 July 2024

By Tim Koch

Tim Koch posts a media release from World Rowing summarising the fourth day of the 2024 Olympic Regatta.

For immediate release: Paris, Tuesday, 30 July.

The fourth day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Regatta played host to a short but intense session of racing as crews fought to secure their places in medal finals.

In the men’s and women’s single sculls, 24 were reduced to 12 in the quarterfinals while semifinals were held in the women’s and men’s double sculls. Reigning Olympic and World Champions remain in the mix – and also Germany’s Oliver Zeidler, who is looking to avoid his disappointment from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

There were mixed fortunes for the host nation, France today. While the noise from the supporters boosted their women’s double sculls, allowing them to hold on to an all-important top three finish in the semifinal, the reigning Olympic Champions in the men’s double sculls didn’t quite manage the same. Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias will need to settle for the Final B. There was further disappointment for France when their men’s four were pipped to the line by Romania by just 0.07 seconds, ending their quest for an Olympic medal.

Two of the medal-winning nations from Tokyo also failed to book a place in the A-final of the women’s four when Australia and Ireland both missed out on a top-two finish. The qualifying places were claimed by the USA and China, who will now race for medals on Thursday, 1 August.

The first rowing medals of the Olympic Games will be awarded in Vaires-sur-Marne on Wednesday, 31 July, in two boat classes: the men’s and women’s quadruple sculls.

In the men’s event, the Netherlands will be looking to defend their title of Olympic Champions. They are likely to come under pressure from Italy, who also won their heat, and also Great Britain, who will be keen to improve on their silver medal from Tokyo. The Dutch crew has two returners from the Tokyo crew whereas the British crew has just one.

Great Britain are also looking strong in the women’s quadruple sculls. After a disappointing Olympic Regatta in Tokyo where they finished seventh in this boat class, they come to Paris as reigning World Champions and comfortably posted the fastest time in the heats. China are reigning Olympic Champions and their crew is completely unchanged from Tokyo, but they have had to go through the repechage to get to the final so will need to up their game to defend their title. The biggest challenge is likely to come from the Netherlands.

Wednesday, the fifth day of competition starts at 09:30 CET with the C Final of the lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls. After a series of semifinals, the B Finals of the quadruple sculls will take place ahead of the medal races. The A Final of the men’s quadruple sculls will take place at 12:26 CET and the women’s quadruple sculls at 12:38 CET.

For the full start list for Wednesday, click here.

Follow all the results live on worldrowing.com

Live updates are on World Rowing’s social media channels:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/WorldRowing
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/worldrowingofficial/
X – https://x.com/WorldRowing
YouTube – https://twitter.com/WorldRowing
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@worldrowing

HTBS Adds: Pressing Matters

For many years, Britain’s Guardian newspaper, beloved of what George Orwell called “prune juice drinking sandal wearers,” employed a distinguished rowing journalist to cover the sport. Just as British rowing underwent a resurgence following the so-called “Redgrave era”, the paper (like the rest of what we once called “Fleet Street”) decided that those few column inches dedicated to aquatics could better be used to cover football in excruciating detail. Recently however, there have been a few rowing related pieces in The Guardian:

30 July: Helen Glover: Fathers on Team GB receive less scrutiny than mothers
28 July: Helen Glover powers through rowing heats with third Olympic gold in reach
27 July: Team GB’s rowers impress in Paris Olympics heats to prove medal potential
26 July: British rowers look liberated and set for Olympic resurgence in Paris
26 July: ‘He chose to believe’: Meet Lola Anderson, GB rower living her late father’s Olympic dream
18 July: ‘I just love proving people wrong’: Georgie Brayshaw, the rower who came out of a coma

Sadly, some of these articles are less “rowing interest” and more so-called “human interest”. As such stories are of little interest to me, do I conclude that I am not human? Note to editors – there are other rowers apart from Helen Glover and James Cracknell. 

Strangely, two months ago, The Guardian did produce an interesting (if slightly random) rowing story titled, Australian rowers out to correct curious quirk of Olympic history at Paris Games, and subtitled, One of the sport’s most successful nations has never won gold in the eight but a selection gamble could help break the drought this year. It had never occurred to me that Australia, a great rowing nation, had never produced an Olympic Gold Medal winning eight. Have they “broken the drought? Well, both the Aussie men and women are in the repechages on Thursday, each aiming for a place in their respective A Finals, both having finished second to GB in their respective heats. It’s not cricket.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph, politically the antithesis of The Guardian, does (technically) still maintain a rowing correspondent but it used its Senior Feature Writer and Tennis Correspondent, Simon Briggs, for a 25 July piece titled Jurgen Grobler interview: I feel sorry for GB rowers left behind after “amateur” handling of my exit. Exclusive: Legendary coach who made British rowers best in the world opens up on his controversial departure and denies walking out. Unfortunately, this link only works if you have an online subscription to the Torygraph.

Perhaps it will soon not matter what the press, both print and online, says or does. Junior Rowing News recently reported that Around 70% of Gen Z respondents (aged 18 to 27) stated in a global survey conducted in April 2023 that they preferred to watch sport on social media over conventional media coverage… Sad face.

For those especially interested in the fortunes of British crews, the British Rowing website also has a Day 4 Report.  

The fourteen-event Olympic Regatta runs 27 July – 3 August. The five-event Paralympic Regatta runs 30 August – 1 September.