Tokyo Olympics 2021: Australia end Great Britain’s men’s coxless four reign with impressive win
Almost 25 years to the day since the triumph of the Oarsome Foursome Australian men’s coxless four broke Great Britain’s recent dominance to claim an emotional Olympic gold on Wednesday.
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Almost 25 years to the day since the triumph of the Oarsome Foursome and with a rivalry to match the Ashes, Australian men’s coxless four broke Great Britain’s recent dominance to claim an emotional Olympic gold on Wednesday.
The new names to go on the famous fruit ads are Alexander Purnell, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alexander Hill, who made their predecessors proud by holding off a late surge to win back the coveted Olympic crown, which the Brits had owned since 2000.
It took an Olympic record of 5min42.76secs and four sets of burning lungs to keep out Romania and a Covid-hit Italian crew.
“We obviously wanted to win it back, it’s been a long time, it was 25 years yesterday since the Oarsome Foursome won,” Purnell said.
Hargreaves added: “A lot of crews have come close, Hilly (Alex Hill) just missed out in Rio and I was watching him in the pub last time, so it was good to be out there today and help him get over the line. It was awesome to put Australia back on top.”
James Tomkins, the three-time Olympic champion and original member of the Oarsome Foursome, was the happiest person at Sea Forest Waterway as he hugged the new champions and officially passed over the title.
“He (Tomkins) just gave us that (Oarsome Foursome) so it was good of him to let us have the title,” Turrin said. “It’s amazing to put it (the boat) back where it belongs.”
Australia’s rich heritage in the four started in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics with the Oarsome Foursome then defending their title four years later in Atlanta.
They single-handedly put rowing on the map in Australia and became the focus of a series of television commercials for fruit company Goulburn Valley.
There were mixed messages being used on the boat over the final frantic moments with the Aussies having just 3.7 seconds to spare from the fast-finishing Romanians.
Turrin even started yelling out the name of his favourite NRL team, the Canberra Raiders, to lift his teammates.
“Initially it was more calm, stay calm, stay relaxed,” Turrin said.
Purnell then added: “I yelled out his dad’s name as I know it gets him going. And then Spencer is like come on Raiders. Over the last 100 it was Raiders, Raiders, Raiders.
“It was tighter than I thought, we thought we had done enough, there were a couple of strokes at the end that looked dodgy and would have wiped off some time, but to look right and see No. 1 and Australia, it was all overwhelming.”
Two gold and two bronze medals in the space of an hour on Wednesday — four medals from four events — has validated Rowing Australia’s move to a centralised program with the men based in Canberra and the women in Penrith in Sydney’s west.
Sporting new Games Village haircuts — Turrin even went the full shave — the new Awesome Foursome sat with their gold medals swinging from their necks on the pontoon to cheer on the Aussie women’s quad sculls final.
This spoke volumes for the unity in this squad, and a final push in the last 100m saw the crew of Ria Thompson, Rowena Meredith, Harriet and Caitlin Cronin win an unexpected bronze.
The men have also only lost one race during the current Olympic cycle and they clearly broke the British team early, with the defending champions fading for fourth.
Italy’s bronze medal effort was impressive given they had a late change in their crew with rower Bruno Rosetti testing positive for Covid-19.
Original foursome member delighted to pass on iconic baton
James Tomkins has experienced more than most at the Olympic Games, but he was gushing and giddy with excitement about what he’d just witnessed in the previous hour.
Between 9.56am and exactly 10.56am on Wednesday morning at Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway, the sport he’d dedicated his life to had risen again.
Back-to-back gold medals followed by consecutive bronze medals had Tomkins momentarily letting slip his official role as IOC Athletes Commission member to become No.1 cheerleader for the Australian rowing team.
He was hugging anyone wearing green and gold, stopping for photos with all the medallists and, importantly, handing over an iconic title.
Tomkins made his name as a member of the Oarsome Foursome, the men’s coxless four who captured the hearts of Australia when they won Olympic gold in Barcelona in 1992 and then backed it up four years later in Atlanta.
That team put rowing on the map immediately elevating its members - Nick Green, Mike McKay, Andrew Cooper (1992) and Drew Ginn (1996) - to a level of celebrity never heard of in the sport.
Of course, there were those TV commercials, the Goulburn Valley fruit jingle, which ensured the Oarsome Foursome lived on long after their careers ended.
Tomkins, who added a third Olympic gold medal in 2004 to become the most decorated in the sport’s history, had one thing on his mind as he proudly watched the 2021 version of the men’s coxless four win the Olympic title.
As soon as they were back on dry land, he rushed into the official tent and squeezed the life out of Alexander Purnell, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alexander Hill, the new Oarsome Foursome.
“These guys have created their own history, that was a long time ago,” Tomkins said. “They were actually telling me that it (the victory in Atlanta) was 25 years ago yesterday.”
Asked if they were ready to embrace the Goulburn Valley role, he smiled: “We’re one big happy family, they can join the club.”
The enormity of the victory - Great Britain had won the event for the past five Games - and the title Tomkins had bestowed on them, wasn’t lost on the crew.
“He just gave us that (Oarsome Foursome) so it was good of him to let us have the title,” Turrin said. “It’s amazing to put it (the boat) back where it belongs.”
In the race before them, the Australia’s women’s coxless four had put their stake in the ground for a bit of history by winning the event which was making its return to the Olympics after a one-off appearance in 1992.
Part of that crew was Rosemary Popa whose parents both rowed for Australia, with her father, Ion, winning a world title in the men’s eight with Tomkins.
In a beautiful piece of symmetry, it was Tomkins, with his IOC hat on, who got the chance to present Rosemary with her Olympic gold medal.
“I rowed with her dad in 1986 and won a world championship,” Tomkins explained. “He was sitting in front of me, so to present the medal to Rosie is just so good.
“I mean what a fantastic morning. It’s just unbelievable, the girls and the guys in the four and then both quads getting bronze as well.
“I had a really good feeling about today. They (the men’s four) are quality, the whole Australian team is quality, it has just been incredible.”
And then for a few moments Tomkins was speechless, it was almost like the golden hour of Australian rowing had just sunk in: “Gee whiz.”
Before any elaboration was allowed, he was pulled into another photo with the new Oarsome Foursome where he beamed like a proud father
Double bronze completes great day for Aussie rowing
Four boats — four medals and beers on at the athletes village.
All the talk was about Australia’s gold medal triumphs, but our men’s and women’s quad sculls rode the gold rush to chip in with two bronzes of their own.
The men’s quad of Jack Cleary, Caleb Antill, Cameron Girdlestone and Luke Letcher were tipped as smokeys at these Games.
The Netherlands were too strong and claimed the gold with a new world record as Great Britain stormed home with a very strong final 100m to pip the Aussies to the silver.
But it was the women in the quad sculls — who have only trained together for five months — who completely surprised with a storming finish.
Australia looked to be out of the medals until a huge error from Italy opened the door with around 200m to go.
As those around them panicked, Australia stayed calm and powered home to nick the bronze medal, behind China and Poland.
Thompson, in bow, said it would be difficult to celebrate given it was the Covid Games, but said their coach had promised a couple of beers.
“Now we can just relax ... our coach has said he would find us some beers, so we are going to hold him to that.”
In choppy water — the wind was so strong it was blew monitors off the wall in the press box — Meridith said they had counted on Thompson’s timing.
“Anything can happen in water like that but we have trained in conditions like that back home, so it was a matter of trust.”
Senior rower Girdleston, a silver medallist in Rio in this boat, said he had always expected Australia to shock the world in Tokyo.
“This means everything. The four of us have come a long way as individuals over the last four or five years,” Girdleston said.
“They postponed it last year but we still stuck to our goals of being at the Olympic Games and being at the start line, that is what has gelled us together.
“I will remember this for a lifetime, I have got three best mates here who will be telling our kids about this and I’ll be telling my six-month-old the story about these guys, where we came from and what we got.”
Originally published as Tokyo Olympics 2021: Australia end Great Britain’s men’s coxless four reign with impressive win
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