Golden Aussies awesome in pairsMelissa Woods, rowing01sep03

AUSTRALIA'S Drew Ginn and James Tomkins have made up for the disappointment of last year with their gold medal-winning performance at the world championships in Milan.

Ginn and Tomkins had kept a low profile this year after finishing a disappointing fourth in 2002.

They left Milan for a few days after qualifying for the semi-final and spent the week training in Varese.

For Tomkins it was his seventh world title.

Australia also claimed a silver medal in the men's coxed pair when Jono Fievez, Luke Pougnault and cox Marc Douez finished behind the US crew.

A member of the Olympic dual gold medal-winning Oarsome Foursome, which Ginn joined for the 1996 Games, 38-year-old Tomkins has continued to leave rowers more than 10 years his junior in his wake.

The Victorian won his first world title in 1986 as a member of the Australian men's eight.

Saturday's gold medal was his second with Ginn in the coxless pair, after they clinched the title in 1999 before Ginn suffered a debilitating back injury that ruled him out of the Sydney Games.

Tomkins combined with Matthew Long to win bronze there.

"I'm not slowing down with age, it's quite the contrary, I'm speeding up," an ecstatic Tomkins said.

Tomkins and Ginn got off to a flying start and by the halfway mark were a second clear of hometown favourites Giuseppe De Vita and Dario Lari.

Croatia's Skelin brothers Sinisa and Niksa turned up the heat in the home stretch, but the Australians resisted the pressure to finish ahead in 6min19.31sec.

Croatia clocked 6:20.79 while South Africa's Ramon Di Clemente and Donovan Cech took bronze in 06:21.69.

"We had a great preparation and lead-in to the race and we knew we had to get out of the blocks better than last year and row more aggressively," Tomkins said.

"There's not a lot left in the tank."

The Australians said they were ready to keep pushing ahead toward the Athens Games, which will be Tomkins' fourth.

"We want to be selected now, we're ready to go," he said. "It's really given us confidence and spurred us on."

Source: http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,7124835%255E10389,00.html

Two South Africans will medalsSun, 31 Aug 2003

South African rowing champions Donovan Cech and Ramon Di Clemente topped their Olympic qualifying victory in the semifinal last week by taking a medal in the final on Saturday.

They became the only heavyweight duo to win a medal at the World Championships since the Sydney Olympics.

"It’s been a medal since Sydney," said two time Olympic rowing contender Paolo Cavalieri.

"This year they took bronze in a very tight finish with Australians replacing UK as the new world champions with an awesome time of 6:19.3."

Cavalieri rode a bike along the towpath and shouted encouragement to the South Africans in Milan.

"I wanted to get as close as I could to the guys. They rowed a great race and South Africans can be proud that they have won a medal at every world cup since the Olympics in Sydney. That kind of consistency is incredible and shows their passion, determination and exceptional world class skill," he said.

The race times for the final were Australia 6:19.3; Croatia 6:20.8; South Africa 6:21.7 and UK out of the medals with 6:23.2.

Rowsa president, Bob Tucker, said from Milan: "Nocsa has identified rowing as one of five sports where SA can bring back a medal from Athens 2004 and this victory supports that expectation.

Don and Ramon have beaten the Australians and the Croatians in various regattas and those Olympic medals are in their sites. They are fine athletes indeed."

Source: http://sport.iafrica.com/news/266856.htm