Decision to shuffle Oarsome Foursome II under fire as crews fail to fire

The Australian men’s four has failed to defend its title from Tokyo, missing the podium in Paris in a result that is likely to place Rowing Australia under the microscope.

Australian rowing under fire. Picture: Francois Nel/Getty Images

Questions will be asked of Rowing Australia’s decision to switch its men’s sweep crews around in the Olympic year if the eight does not go close to the medals in Saturday’s final.

RA high performance staff, with some consultation with athletes, decided to shift members of the gold medal-winning four into an eight this year in a bid to land the sport’s white whale.

Australia has never won an eights title at the Olympics but made a controversial decision to target the title in Paris by shifting many of its best rowers into the boat it publicly named its “priority” male craft.

Australia’s Men's Four - Timothy Masters, Fergus Hamilton, Jack Robertson and Alex Hill. Picture: Getty Images

That included three members of the gold medal-winning four from Tokyo, with stroke Alex Hill the only rower remaining in the boat for Paris.

Ahead of the Games, Hill was confident the new crew could compete with the world’s best and a heat win over Great Britain in the Rowsellas’ opening World Cup campaign in Lucerne - in their first international competition together - seemed to justify that belief.

But the four of Hill, Tim Masters, Fergus Hamilton and Jack Robertson then missed the podium in that final and despite a strong heat row at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium to earn direct passage to the Olympic decider, were well off the pace on Thursday night (AEST), trailing home in sixth and last place.

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The four claimed ahead of the regatta that they had had enough time to gel before the Games.

And while they were disappointed with their effort in the final - over-revving things at the start and never quite gaining the mid-race rhythm needed to settle into the race - they were philosophical about their placing, having at least tried to give themselves a chance in a crack field.

“You learn a lot every single race we’re together, so of course everyone’s going to want to have had more race experience together,” Robertson said. “We’re not saying that that’s unfair, but of course it could be useful to have more races under your belt but you take the cards you’re dealt and Rowing Australia decided to go with a new combination this year and we’ve loved every moment of it.

Alex Purnell after the men's Eight Repechage on day six of the Olympic Games. Picture: Getty Images

“We were willing to take on the challenge and now own the result.”

Masters said it was always going to be a challenge to take a new crew and try to better the three nations that were on the podium at last year’s world titles. But there was also no point in “Monday morning quarterbacking” the RA’s crew decisions.

“It’s hard to make a decision on which way to go at that moment - hindsight is 20/20 so it’s easy to sit here now and go, ‘They should have done this, they should have done that’,” Masters said. “Those decisions are never easy to make - and it’s not our decision-making either.”

Originally published as Decision to shuffle Oarsome Foursome II under fire as crews fail to fire