Stuff Digital Edition

Just perfect: Bond bows out in style

Ian Anderson ian.anderson@stuff.co.nz

There appeared no way Hamish Bond could improve on perfection. As he and Eric Murray crossed the line at the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon, it capped an eightyear unbeaten period which marked the Kiwi pair as arguably the greatest rowing boat in history.

Murray hung up the oars months later and Bond went seeking a new challenge, which remarkably led to a bronze medal on the bike at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Yet what he achieved at Tokyo may have been better than anything that came before.

After a somewhat frustrating exit from cycling, Bond took to the water again with a bigger challenge than the one he and Murray embarked on together after the four they were world champions in a year before failed to make the A final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Dunedin product opted to spearhead the New Zealand men’s eight aimed at the Tokyo Olympics. And it wasn’t just a place in the boat either – Bond sought to lead from the front.

‘‘When I returned to rowing I genuinely thought, ‘look, I know how to row a boat fast, I’ll teach these guys and it should go well’,’’ Bond said prior to the Games.

‘‘It’s been quite a learning process ... we don’t have anyone, athlete or coach, who’s won an Olympic gold medal or set a world record in the eight. It’s been somewhat of a case of throwing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks in terms of how we row the boat.’’

Part of his role was to convince Michael Brake and Tom Murray, genuine medal contenders for Tokyo in the pair, that they’d be better-served switching to an eight they’d been in previously with outstanding potential but without elite success.

With him in Tokyo were four crew members aged 24 or younger who flourished, meaning the whip-smart Bond could feel comfortable about his major hand in pushing all-in with the big boat.

‘‘I knew empirically – I knew it was backed up on paper,’’ Bond said.

‘‘I was far more enthused to carry on training the extra year given that I could see on paper ‘look, I think this stacks up’.

‘‘I genuinely thought, man-forman, we had the best crew. If we put out four pairs, I’m pretty sure we would have won that kind of race.’’

The eight, guided by coxswain Sam Bosworth, improved throughout their week of racing in Tokyo to romp away from the more-favoured crew to win a memorable gold.

It meant Bond had his third consecutive Olympic gold, putting him now behind only Dame Lisa Carrington (five) and Ian Ferguson (four) as New Zealand’s leading gold medal-winner alongside Sir Peter Snell and Paul MacDonald.

If you fancy a debate over who the greatest of the great is, go ahead and waste a few hours – or be content with the words of the perfectly placed Eric Murray.

‘‘He’s definitely the best rower we’ve ever produced. He’s definitely right up there with the best Olympians New Zealand’s ever produced.’’

Now that’s over, it’s time for the focus to be on Team Bond with wife Lizzie, a doctor, and children Finlay, Imogen and Phoebe.

‘‘Rowing for the bulk of my career has defined me as a person, I now have my family and other priorities and it feels like the right move to make,’’ Bond said yesterday.

Impossible to argue with a sportsman who made all the right moves. ‘‘The name’s Bond, Hamish Bond’’ – and the just-retired New Zealand rower can reflect on nailing more pinnacle assignments than the celebrated movie secret agent.

The 35-year-old – winner with longtime pairs team-mate Eric Murray as the Halberg Awards’ athlete of the decade – began his golden run at Dorney Lake near London in 2012.

He won again with Murray in the pairs at Rio in 2016, then – after a Commonwealth Games time trial cycling bronze medal in 2018 – switched boats to the eight for Tokyo 2020 to win New Zealand’s first gold medal in that blue riband rowing event since Munich 1972.

Stuff’s files reveal Bond’s genius for striking gold in sport’s pinnacle event.

London 2012

New Zealand sport had another golden hour at the Olympics thanks to the magnificent achievements of single-sculler Mahe Drysdale and the pair of Bond and Murray in a magical 45 minutes.

New Zealand’s perfect pair said they felt like the All Blacks ahead of the final, but they delivered a performance even our rugby finest would have been proud of.

Then Drysdale completed the special double.

Murray and Bond, New Zealand’s most dominant sportsmen of the modern era, scorched to a commanding victory in their final to complete their half of the golden hour double.

They had dominated their event for four long years – winning all 13 international regattas they entered (between 2009 and 2012) , comprising 36 races in total – and were never going to relinquish their stranglehold with the mountaintop in sight.

Sure enough they powered to an epic victory with a commanding row that left their rivals wallowing behind them in a separate race for the silver.

2016 RIO

Peerless pair Bond and Murray claimed back-to-back Olympic gold medals at the Rio Games.

The Kiwi pair, who extended their unbeaten run to 69 consecutive races, pulled away over the second half of the course to claim New Zealand’s first gold medal in Rio.

They were third through the opening 500m behind South Africans Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling but then opened up a half a length gap over the Italian duo of Giovanni Abagnale and Marco do Costanzo by the halfway stage.

From then on the race was not about who would win but who would grab the minor medals.

‘‘We were bloody nervous today be we knew we just had to live up to our own expectations and our ability. And that was it,’’ Murray said.

2020 TOKYO

With Murray retired, Bond left the pairs arena for a new challenge at his third Olympic Games.

The two-time gold medallist became the gliding light at the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 after being delayed a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The eight – with Bond as the senior man and driving forcebecame the first New Zealand crew to win the blue riband event in 49 years.

Bond’s powerful shoulders had an added burden on them in final.

After convincing Michael Brake and Tom Murray that the New Zealand men’s eight was the boat to be in for Tokyo, Bond felt the onus was on him to be right.

Brake and Murray had won silver at the 2019 world championships in the men’s pair – the same class Bond and Eric Murray won consecutive

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2022-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

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