World Rowing Championships: Aussie giants issue storm warning

Who needs to wait for the Ashes? On the rowing waters of Seville next weekend, an Anglo-Australian rivalry promises to be every bit as acute as the battle for cricket's urn and rather less one-sided. Unbeaten for two and a half seasons, Britain's coxless pair of Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell have come under pressure from the reformed pair of James Tomkins and Drew Ginn, the former world champions. At Lucerne last month, the Australians put their own unbeaten record on the line and ran out comfortable winners in both the heats and the final of the last World Cup regatta of the season.

The British pair returned to their base in Henley for a stern re-appraisal of their priorities; Tomkins and Ginn flew home talking nonchalantly of doing a little bit of training next time. Round one to the Australians. The rematch, barring unforeseen injuries or mishaps, is scheduled for the final of the World Championships early next Saturday afternoon and though both crews deny that victory will have any bearing on the destiny of the gold at Athens two years on, a third successive defeat would herald a winter of serious contemplation for Pinsent and Cracknell.

No sport could ask for a more enticing advertisement. "Four of the top guys in world rowing, going head to head," as Tomkins puts it. And a classic contrast of styles, philosophy and character. On one side, the sunshine Aussies, tall and slender, radiating a relaxed confidence and flawless technique; on the other, the stern-faced British pair, powerful and intimidating, the product of coach Jürgen Grobler's belief in a simple formula: muscle plus power equals speed.

The stereotyping is not entirely media-induced. Tomkins and Ginn are not great believers in fitness for fitness sake. Their routine involves cycling and surfing; time in the gym is limited, time on the water kept short and sharp. Tomkins, now 37, admits that under the punishing regime set down initially by Redgrave and pursued with equal discipline by Cracknell and Pinsent, he would have retired long ago. No disrespect, just a different way of thinking.

"You don't have to get fit by flogging yourself on the ergo [indoor rowing machine]," he says. "We pay a little bit of attention to the way we move the boat. We're not small guys and we can generate a lot of power at the end of those blades. But we put a lot of emphasis on athleticism. We try and do a bit of everything. Surfing is very good for balance and we both like surfing. Drew's one of those guys who's naturally good at all sports. I used to play some footie, Aussie rules, as a kid and a bit of junior tennis and when I get back after the World Championships, I'm going straight into the Aussie basketball team for the world masters championships."

The flexibility extends beyond a long, fluent, style of rowing into a freshness of mental approach. Redgrave was 38 when he won his fifth gold medal in Sydney: Tomkins, who will be seeking his third gold in Athens and his seventh World Championship in Seville, will be a couple of months short of that age in Athens. By the end, Redgrave's body had begun to protest.

"I certainly understand what Steve was going through," Tomkins says. "But the way he did it put a huge strain on body and mind. You would just get sick of it. Having a family, doing a whole lot of other training, not allowing rowing to dominate your life, that keeps me keen and motivated."

Tomkins has a professional life away from the water, as a merchant banker. Ginn, the younger by nearly nine years, is a sports development officer in Sydney. As a pair, they waltzed through the 1999 season, winning the World Championships, and would have been odds-on favourites for the gold in Sydney had not Ginn injured his back in a World Cup regatta, ironically, in Lucerne. Tomkins teamed up at short notice with Matthew Long to snatch bronze from Ed Coode and Greg Searle in Sydney. Ginn could only watch from the shore.

"We were absolutely 100 per cent sure that Drew would not race again," Tomkins explains. "But his rehab went well and he did all the right things, so we thought we'd give it another go. From the first time we got back in the boat, it felt good again. When we row together well, it's a fantastic feeling. We match up perfectly. All we do in a race is try and recreate that feeling. It seems to happen in most races, which is pretty handy."

The British pair have had their trials, not least in switching Cracknell from stroke side, where he rowed in the IV, to bow, the technical equivalent of swinging a golf club the wrong way round. Their dominance of the pair, aided by the adoption of Redgrave's intimidatory style of racing, has helped to mask the failings. In Lucerne, the Australians refused to let the British pair dictate the tempo of the race, then accelerated through Pinsent and Cracknell effortlessly in the third quarter of the race.

"They might have been ahead, but not by much," recalls Tomkins. "It might be important to them to be ahead, but we don't expect to be behind at any stage. We're pretty quick off the blocks ourselves and anyone good enough to go with us, then they're bloody good." The Australians have anticipated immediate retaliation. "I'm absolutely 100 per cent sure they will come back tougher and more determined than ever," he adds. "With blokes of that calibre, there's no doubt."

Though the Croats might disagree, the final will surely come down to a match race between four Olympic champions. Together they will carry a haul of seven Olympic and a staggering 22 World Championship golds to the start line, though, strangely, Pinsent and Tomkins have never raced each other in a major championships.

"It'll be interesting," muses the Australian. "To be honest, anything we achieve now is a bonus. Drew loves his stats about boat speed and we have a fair idea of what time we can row. We don't really worry who we're racing." The cold war has already begun.