Six weeks together. That’s all the New Zealand Men’s Four have had to prepare for a World Championships medal race, and they’re genuinely in contention.
Fred Vavasour, bowman of the crew, had the best seat in the house yesterday when they finished third in their semifinal on the Bosbaan. “She’s all to play for,” he said after the race. “We’ve got as good a chance as any.” Coming from someone who watched Matt Macdonald row for gold in Tokyo while still at school, and was bumming around Dunedin when the Paris Olympics rolled around, that confidence carries weight.
The composition of this boat explains part of why. Matt Macdonald and Ollie Maclean, both Olympic medallists, returned from their post-Games breaks to slot straight into a crew being built around U23 international Harry Fitzpatrick and Vavasour. That experience matters in a medal race. “They’re so calm around everything,” Vavasour said. But the pair are also ruthless when needed, which sets a tone for how a crew operates under pressure.
The Kiwis were second at halfway yesterday, then found themselves in third with 500 metres to run. What unfolded was a four-way fight for the three A Final spots. Germany came hard from fourth, charging past China and then hunting the New Zealanders down. They got there by 0.27 seconds. The Netherlands won in 5:58.70, Germany in 6:00.15, and New Zealand clocked 6:00.42.
It stings, but it matters less than the path there. Vavasour described the rhythm they’re hunting as “pretty dangerous” when everything lines up right, but the Bosbaan doesn’t make it easy. “It’s swirly,” he explained. “Sometimes you feel like you’re really humming along, and then there’s points where you feel like you’ve just been stopped in your tracks.”
The Germans forced the Kiwis to lift in the middle section, which was precisely the sort of race-craft decision an Olympic medal winner brings. “We tried to put a wee bit more on them through the middle,” Vavasour said. “They just pipped us at the line, but we were happy with that performance.”
That last bit matters. Satisfaction with how they rowed, not frustration with the result, suggests they’ll have another gear for tomorrow’s A Final. Six weeks is nothing in rowing. What they’ve built in that time, though, is a crew that rows within its processes, trusts them, and believes that getting those right is enough to beat anyone on the day. That’s the foundation you build medals on.
