The oarsome Hamish Bond

Debate will rage about the retiring rower’s place among New Zealand’s sporting greats, but his long-time former teammate has no doubts. Aaron Goile reports.

‘‘It is . . . really hard to get your head around how good the guy actually was.’’ Eric Murray, left, with Hamish Bond

‘‘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.’’

That’s how the retiring Hamish Bond stacks up in the eyes of long-time former crew-mate Eric Murray, who is still blown away by just what he saw his fiercely competitive friend achieved on the water.

Bond, 35, yesterday drew the curtain on his rowing career, highlighted by eight world championship titles and three successive Olympic gold medals, along with a stunning 69-race unbeaten streak in the men’s pair.

The man he teamed so sublimely with – never losing a race together and posting world best times in both the pair and coxed pair that still stand today – felt fortunate to be on board for the ride.

‘‘For him to to do what he did, for such a long period of time, it is something that is really hard to get your head around how good the guy actually was,’’ Murray told Stuff, amazed ‘‘just to see what a human could actually produce’’.

‘‘The thing with Hamish was, he wasn’t an overbearing figure. When you looked at him on the podium against all the other rowers, he’s six inches shorter, he’s about 10 kilograms or more lighter, and you were like, ‘Wow, OK’.

‘‘But he just had this phenomenal capacity in his endurance and his physiology, it just set him apart from so many other people. And he just managed to be able to find his niche of where he was able to physically push himself in a sport, and he found that with rowing.’’

Coupled with the physical ability, though, came a drive and determination that made

Bond a real world-beater. And Murray got a first-hand view.

‘‘Hamish was very much the pessimist in the partnership. He was always like, ‘We’ve got to get it right, something could go wrong’. Just always trying to find that perfection and work towards it.’’

Bond, who Murray felt could have carved out a superb career in the single scull had he wanted to, was by no means some superman spared of pre-race jitters.

‘‘You see Hamish and he’s quite a confident, open person, but sitting in the changing sheds or wherever we’re warming up an hour before, he’s as nervous as any other person out there – the worry and anxiety and that trepidation, the whole works,’’ he said.

‘‘But it was just a matter of turning the switch on at the right time for race time, and then Hamish Bond the rower came out, and, he was, literally, unbeatable.’’

Bond ends his career behind only Dame Lisa Carrington (five) and Ian Ferguson (four) in terms of Olympic gold medals for New Zealand, equal with Paul MacDonald and Sir Peter Snell, while only seven rowers in history (men or women) have stood on top of the Olympic podium more times.

‘‘Obviously you’ve got Sir Steve Redgrave who did five Olympic gold medals, so he’ll never be touched,’’ Murray said. ‘‘But Hamish is right up there, in the top five, at least, rowers in the world.’’

Murray felt Bond could have added to his collection had he carried on to Paris in 2024, but, with him having three kids under four, knew this shaped as the perfect time for him to hang up the oars.

‘‘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

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.’’