Video of the Week: The Men's Pair Final from the 2010 World Rowing Championships



This week's video comes from the 2010 World Rowing Championships in Karapiro. The men's pair was one of the closest races of the year, and, like their counterparts on the women's side, the New Zealand combination managed to hold off the British as they sprinted to the line. The margin? 0.32 seconds. It has been widely speculated that the GB pair of Andy Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed will be reincorporated into a new-look four for the London Games, to defend their gold medal in that event from Beijing on home waters. The two have pressed the Kiwi combo of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond to the absolute limit (see above), but each time the two crews have raced, Bond and Murray have found a way to win. Take last year's final in the M2- from Bled, for example–Hodge and Reed crossed the line in 6:16.27, which is exactly two seconds off the world record set by Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell in Seville during the 2002 World Championships. The only problem: Bond and Murray were only 0.5 seconds from the world's best time, finishing first in 6:14.77, marking their 14th consecutive victory over their rivals from Great Britain.

The GB Trials are complete, and again Hodge and Reed took first place in the men's pair. The Olympic rowing team from New Zealand has already been named. Now we're left to watch and wait to see how the lineups shake out as we move toward the world cup season this spring.

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