To quote the esteemed Lt. George in Blackadder Goes Fourth – “Row, row, row your punt, gently down the stream…”
I’d best stop there.
However, the rowing at the Olympics will be considerably less sedate than that suggested in the above ditty. Lt. George himself might not have known this, but the actor playing him, Hugh Laurie, certainly would, having taken part in the famous Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, in 1980 and – before comedy acting became a career – having considered being a full-time rower himself, with genuine Olympic ambitions.
Britain has a proud record in Olympic rowing, behind only the USA in total medals won over the years. Whilst the British squad is perhaps not as strong as it has been in some recent Games, it still harbours several realistic gold medal shots, not least of which is Helen Glover and Polly Swan in the Women’s Pair. Glover, a two-time Olympic champion with former racing partner Heather Stanning, retired after the Rio Games. Now, as a mother of three small children, she has come out of retirement this year to try and make it a three-peat.
Other names to look out for are the Croatia brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic, who have moved from the Double Sculls – which they won in Rio – into the Men’s Pair where they are double World Champions. Expect the Netherlands and New Zealand to both have strong medal chances in several events. In fact, both New Zealand and Australia may well out-perform my predictions for them – as far as I can tell neither country took part in the usual series of World Cup regattas, so their form is something of an unknown factor.
Finally, Ireland has several good chances to get its first ever Gold at the Olympics. Sanita Puspure is a double world champion in the Women’s Single Sculls and Paul O’Donovan has a shot at going one position better here than the Silver he won in Rio – with his brother Gary in the Lightweight Double Sculls – alongside his new partner Fintan McCarthy.
As ever, let me know how wrong I am in the comments below!
Also, I’m aware that most of the posts right now are predictions based around the Olympics. Obviously, I want to get the predictions out before the events start. But I promise that there will be lots of articles that aren’t predicted based soon, if you aren’t interested in that side of things!
Ian's World Of Sports 