Rowers John Smith and Chris Baxter edged off podium at World Cup

Unlucky John Smith and Chris Baxter were edged off the podium at the World Cup II regatta in Lucerne on Sunday, being pushed out of the men’s pair medals by a fast-finishing Spanish crew.

Britain’s Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George, the world championship runners-up in 2023, dominated the race to win in 6min 32.56sec, but behind them the next three spots were separated by a mere 0.69sec.

The Spanish flyers of Jaime Pazos and Javier Ordonez, fourth with 500m to go, finished second in 6:35.19 after pumping out a blistering 95.92sec finale to complete the fastest split of the final quarter of the 2,000m course.

The SA combination, fourth after the first 500m, had powered to third place at the 1,000m halfway mark and at 1,500m.

And even though they were the second-fastest boat over the final 500m, going 97.33, it just wasn’t enough on the day as they clocked 6:35.88, 11-hundredths of a second behind Switzerland’s world champions Roman Roeoesli and Andrin Gulich.

A second British crew ended fifth and Ireland, which included bronze medallist from 2023, Ross Corrigan, were sixth.

The Spanish failed to make the A final in Belgrade in 2023.

If anyone is looking for a good omen from the result, it could be that the SA pair of Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling ended fourth at the same World Cup regatta in 2016 by 18-hundredths of a second, a result that helped spur them on to Olympic silver at the Rio Games a couple of months later.

Smith, a member of the victorious lightweight four at London 2012, is seeking to become the first South African to win a second Olympic medal after a 12-year gap. 

Rowing has won three Olympic medals for SA, two of them in the men’s pair. The first was bronze at Athens 2004.

Paige Badenhorst and Katherine Williams ended fourth in the women’s double sculls B final, crossing the line in 7:06.05. Netherlands were first in 7:02.89, followed by two Italian crews.