THE greatest moments in sport come when the victor reaches so deep, stretches so far and prevails by so little, that in the moment of triumph there is nothing left. Momentarily, there is no care for victory or defeat, just the emptiness that comes after giving all that you have.
So it was at Schinias rowing centre yesterday as four Britons produced an extraordinary performance and won one of the great races of these or any Olympics. Victory earned Matthew Pinsent, the crew’s driving force, his fourth Olympic gold medal and lifted him close to the top of Mount Olympus, just one more climb behind his one-time partner, Steve Redgrave.
With the possible exception of Paula Radcliffe in this afternoon’s marathon, no British victory will be more cherished than that of the rowers. Yet remarkably the four provided just a quarter of Team GB’s gold-medal tally on a day of outstanding success — Britain’s best haul of golds in a single day in the post-war era. Sailor Ben Ainslie claimed gold in the Finn class after rebounding from an opening-day disqualification to produce the performance of his career. It was Ainslie’s second Olympic gold after his victory in the Laser class at Sydney four years ago.
Then cycling’s Bradley Wiggins won gold by beating Australia’s Brad McGee in the 4,000m pursuit. World champion last year, Wiggins won decisively and after Chris Hoy’s brilliant gold in Friday’s 1km time-trial, it promised to be a hugely successful Games for Britain’s track cyclists.
The fourth British gold medal came after an appeal committee upheld penalties against German three-day eventer Bettina Hoy, and upgraded Leslie Law’s silver to gold in the individual equestrian competition. The British team took silver and Pippa Funnell individual bronze. Hoy had been exonerated, but the French and British teams appealed and Law finds himself in the most coveted position.
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Quite apart from the race of their lives by Pinsent, James Cracknell, Ed Goode and Steve Williams, the outstanding Ainslie doing what he was expected to do and the golds for Wiggins and Law, there were other outstanding British performances. Rowers Katherine Grainger and Cath Bishop won silver in the women’s pairs and Sarah Winckless and Elise Laverick got bronze in the double sculls, while Kelly Sotherton claimed a heptathlon bronze.
So an Olympic Games that began slowly for Team GB has picked up momentum. Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield added to Ainslie’s gold by winning silver in the 470 class and after Thursday’s gold medal by the Yngling crew, the sailing team has again delivered on the grandest stage.
But it is the victory of the rowers that is, already, enshrined in our sporting consciousness. It was gained by the narrowest of margins, eight-hundredths of a second or the length of a finger — a Pinsent finger, mind you. The race itself was spellbinding. Starting well, the British four gained an early advantage, but it was never enough to shake off the determined Canadians. Then in the third quarter, the Canadians upped their effort and moved into a half-second lead. From there to the finish, it was down to guts. The Canadians weren’t lacking, it was just that their adversaries would not allow themselves to be beaten.
You could see Pinsent, in particular, grow in the moment of crisis. Sensing, then knowing precisely where the line was, they overtook their rivals and got a narrow but decisive lead. The Canadians fought back and were getting back up as the two boats flashed across the line.
The British then laid down their oars and their arms, in that moment of utter exhaustion. Not knowing whether they had won, caring only that they had given it everything. What more could anyone have asked? Yet though the margin of victory was counted in hundredths of a second, there was an air of inevitability about the result.
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It was like watching Lester Piggott in the tightest of photo finishes for the Derby: only one result. Or watching Jack Nicklaus standing over a putt to win a major championship: you can start engraving now. Pinsent’s name was on that gold and his mates thought: “If his name is there, so must ours.”
Later the four-time gold medallist struggled to hold back the tears: “I can’t really get any perspective on it. I thought we rowed a really good race.” From the commentator’s position, his long-time partner, Redgrave, had no such difficulty.
“Four times an Olympic gold medallist, what can you say about the guy? He is absolutely unbelievable. Head and shoulder above anyone else in the world.” When Redgrave des-cribes a rower in such terms, you marvel that anyone could be that good. Pinsent, says Redgrave, could go on to win a fifth and even a sixth Olympic gold.
What made the victory of the rowers so admirable was their triumph over adversity. Only towards the 11th hour of the squad’s Olympic preparation was the quartet brought together and then Alex Partridge suffered a collapsed lung and had to be replaced. Coode took his place and rowed his part. Partridge, they said, was the crew’s fifth man; its inspiration on the many tough days.
Ainslie, too, won against the odds. To move from the class in which he won gold at Sydney, he had to gain a lot of weight. He lifted weights, downed a lot of protein shakes and then overcame a potentially devastating disqualification in his second race on the opening day.
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That allowed no margin for error, no way of recovering from one other setback. He believed the “right-of-way” disqualification, following a late protest from the French sailor Guillaume Florent, was manifestly unjust. It could have destroyed him; instead it inspired him and in subsequent races Ainslie won four times, was twice second and recorded two other top-five finishes. It was an emphatic victory and formidable testimony to his talent and determination.