Barrow stumped by SA rowers’ under-par performance

Having won rowing’s final qualification race heading into the Tokyo Olympics, much was expected from South Africa’s men’s four as they kicked off their campaign at the Sea Forest Waterway on Saturday.

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But a way-under-par performance from the quartet of Rio silver medallist Lawrence Brittain, Kyle Schoonbee, London gold medallist John Smith and Sandro Torrente to finish a disappointing fifth, and last in their heat, has left national coach Roger Barrow stumped.

“We were definitely flat. Why? I don’t know yet. We’ve been here a long time now. Maybe we felt it a bit being here so long, but I definitely wasn’t expecting that,” admitted Barrow afterwards.

“From the first stroke they were down, and they had those fast Americans on their right which really put them under pressure and I think they started doubting themselves a little bit going through. We’re always slower starters than the others but that really played with their heads a lot,” he added.

The Americans went on to finish second in the heat with Australia first – both booking automatic spots in the final.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever know exactly what’s wrong if I’m honest,” continued Barrow. “We’ve only got tonight to turn it around so it’s a big ask. We’re going to have to really soul-search tonight. It’s a tough one. I don’t know the answers now, but we’ll definitely come out fighting as hard as we can.”

LAST CHANCE

The South African crew will now have to finish in the top two of their repechage on Sunday if they are to make it to the A final and have a shot at a medal. But Barrow is not brimming with confidence.

“I’m not that confident if I’m honest. We looked too flat… The guys didn’t really find their rhythm off the start and they were a bit short. They need to be a bit longer. So we’ll make a few technical changes on how we’re starting the boat but I just hope their legs feel a little more bouncy tomorrow.

“We’ve got to throw everything we’ve got at it, and they’ll die trying. There’s no doubt about that,” added the disappointed coach.

Speaking after the race, Smith reckoned: “We didn’t have the best start, not executing what we came out to do. It was a tough day in the office.

“We’ve got to regroup tomorrow and try a few things, we’ve got to try execute a different race plan and see how we go … we’re keen to try and turn this thing around. It’s not done yet. We have one last chance to get it right tomorrow.”

Schoonbee added: “It’s a tough one but it’s far from over… We did refine our race plan quite a bit from the World Cup and the qualification regatta, trying to take the next step, but trying to add another ball to what we were already juggling, we just lost it a little bit. We just need to go back to that base foundation that we had and see how that goes.”

Seeing they were well down on the crews in front of them out on the water, the South Africans eased off towards the latter part of the race to preserve their energy for tomorrow’s repechage.

Torrente explained: “We realised the top crews were getting away from us, so Lawrence called it. I think we just need to be more confident in our stroke.”

Barrow added: “When you’re not within a length of the others and you’re at the halfway point, you’ve got to ease off, so they made a good decision. But I just hope it pays off and they’ve got something more tomorrow. It’s a tough one to swallow and a tough one to understand so soon after the race.”

Earlier in the day, the men’s pair of Luc Daffarn and Jake Green also finished fifth in their heat, well down on the winning crew from Romania. That means they’ll also compete in a repechage tomorrow for a chance to progress.

“We’re just looking for that rhythm in the middle 1000m – we came off it a little bit today,” said Green afterwards. “It was a bit of a baptism of fire but that’s how the Olympics go. We’ve got another race tomorrow, so our heads are back in the game…. It’s all about getting the job done. It’s just about getting back in that mindset, and then tweaking one or two things, keeping it simple and then going out and trying to have a cracker performance tomorrow.”