Redgrave shoulders blame for defeats

At the weekend a Great British sporting tradition, longer lasting than many closest to the nation's heart, was broken. Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, unbeaten in a full line-up in international competition since 1990, lost twice in the same weekend at the World Cup regatta here.

At the weekend a Great British sporting tradition, longer lasting than many closest to the nation's heart, was broken. Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, unbeaten in a full line-up in international competition since 1990, lost twice in the same weekend at the World Cup regatta here.

The British coxless four of James Cracknell, Redgrave, Tim Foster and Pinsent missed out by 0.1sec to New Zealand in the semi-final and a horrendous six seconds in the final to Italy, New Zealand and Australia. It raised a barrage of questions about Redgrave's ability to win a record fifth successive Olympic gold in Sydney.

It was the crew's fourth regatta and ninth hard race of a season which began only in mid-June. The three crews in front of them had appeared at only one other World Cup regatta and had everything to gain. As the British boat's coach, Jürgen Grobler, said, "We get chased every time. The opposition expect us to win and win and win. It might have been better if we had finished racing with Henley, but we felt a loyalty to the World Cup and didn't take account of the level of tiredness."

Critics, buried up to their chins in their armchairs, will probably advise that Redgrave, Pinsent and Co need to get fitter. Rowing requires high skill, which takes a long time to learn, and levels of strength and fitness so far beyond the norm that it is properly discussed only on the outer limits of exercise physiology. Grobler, speaking at the start of the season, pointed out that no one in the world has experience of coaching an Olympic champion like the 38-year-old Redgrave in a 17th season of top-flight competition. There is no blueprint nor, really, is there a theoretical basis for the training programme. Allowances also have to be made for Redgrave's diabetes and permanent irritable bowel syndrome which means the coach is well into the realms of guesswork.

Grobler was a part of the East German sports system for 20 years and knows as well as anyone how to handle the situation. "This is not the time to be running around like a headless chicken," he said, "but I will look again at the training programme. This time the glycogen stores were a little empty."

Part of the reason the British four has been unbeaten for so long is that they are also the best at what sports psychologists call "internal attribution". That is, they are happy to take the credit when they win but accept all the blame when it goes wrong. Redgrave was scornful of attempts by press and supporters to blame the loss on the appalling weather.

"It was the same for all of us. In fact, our experience in things not going to plan should have helped us more than the others", he said. "We row our own race. We do not plan to lead but we often do. This time we expected Italy to be fast to 500m and that New Zealand would feel they had the measure of the last 500m after they took us in the semi-final. But when we dropped into the race pace there was not enough to give and we were just going through the motions."

The crew are taking a week off before meeting next Monday. The will then undertake 10 days' training at Henley before spending 20 days at an altitude camp in Austria. There follows a similar stay in the British Olympic training site on the Gold Coast, north of Brisbane, before the Games in Sydney.

Perhaps the biggest factor to emerge from these races is the encouragement they will have given the opposition. For the first time, they now have evidence that the British can be beaten. However, Redgrave said: "It will strengthen the vision and focus in the next two months, now we have to get back on top."