Stuff Digital Edition

Tokyo 2021

Olympics golds in London 2012 and Rio 2016.

The Kiwi duo were expected to be among the leading challengers to Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic, who had dominated the class after switching from the double scull they rowed to victory in Rio.

But Bond was close to convinced that if Brake and Murray joined the eight, it would be the best move for the New Zealand team.

So it proved, as the eight beat Germany and Great Britain to give Bond his third gold in as many Olympics, and a first for Brake, Murray, Tom Mackintosh, Dan Williamson, Phillip Wilson, Shaun Kirkham, Matt Macdonald and coxswain Sam Bosworth.

‘‘Yeah, I think that was probably my biggest . . .I don’t know what I’d call it . . . pressure,’’ Bond said later.

‘‘Obviously they were a good chance of a medal in the pair, given their history – if we’d walked away with nothing, that would have been pretty . . . devastating? I don’t know if it would have been devastating for them, but it would have been pretty disappointing to have had a hand in that in a negative fashion.

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

Sport

en-nz

2022-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://stuff.pressreader.com/article/281917366467428

Stuff Limited