Aussie rowers come second in men's four final

Sunday, 05 August 2012

The Australian men's four took silver in a thrilling race at Eton Dorney.

The race tactics had a surprise twist when Great Britain, who normally trail Australia through the first three quarters of the race, led by a metre at the 500m mark and eventually won by three metres from the Australian crew who fought valiantly with the United States in third.

Australia, normally the greyhounds of the race who lead and ask opposition to run them down, never led the race which lived up to expectations as the thriller everyone expected it to be.

Some silver medals are sublime surprises but others feel like consolation prizes and this was one of them. 'It is all so sad we could not come away with the gold medal,' said VIS scholarship holder Will Lockwood.

The Australian boys, featuring VIS rowers Drew Ginn, Joshua Dunkley Smith and Lockwood, embraced in a group hug initiated by Ginn when they climbed out of the boat and then they embraced the Brits.

A gold would have made Ginn the only Australian to triumph in four Olympics. He would also have joined Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose and Betty Cuthbert as four-time gold medallists and only Ian Thorpe (five) would have stood ahead of him.