MEN’S EIGHTS
M8+
Words: Rachel Quarrell / Photography: Steve McArthur
The men's eights: engraved on the souls of German sweep oarsmen, or so the Deutschland Achter would have you believe. Certainly, Germany bossed the Olympiad pre-pandemic, but since the fall of the Iron Curtain it is Canada and Britain who have won the Games gold the most (only twice each) with Germany, USA and the Netherlands winning it once apiece. The Rowing Canada Aviron Tokyo policy of having no men's eight saw the rest of the rivals battling it out, with Australia and late qualifiers New Zealand joining the fun. Everyone had a story to tell: Mike Teti combatting rumour and general discontent in the USA with an assault on gold; Hamish Bond beefing up the Kiwi effort in an attempt to win his third gold and revive memories of their legendary 1972 victory; Australia out to show their newly centralised system could work wonders. The Germans wanting the clean sweep of an Olympiad so prized in eights racing; the Dutch demonstrating to everyone they could win despite COVID cases in the team and bullying in the boat park, and the British on a trophy hunt with a mix of Jürgen Grobler-inspired emotions.