Back in May, Great Britain’s flagship boat, the men’s pair, had easily won at the Rowing
World Cup in Banyoles, Spain. Andy Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed were being touted as
the next Redgrave and Pinsent. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away and in a different
season, Eric;Murray and Hamish Bond were going through a World Cup simulation on the
cold waters of Lake Karapiro in New Zealand.
One may think the New Zealand duo had come
out of nowhere to take the men’s pair by storm.
They had not. But the pair may just as easily have
never been formed.
Murray and Bond had been sitting in a four together
since 2006, preparing for the Beijing Olympics. In
2006, the 186cm, 85kg Bond sat in bow. Murray,
at 195cm and 97kg, was in stroke. By 2007, Bond
had moved into stroke with Murray sitting directly
behind him. They became World Champions in the
Bond had a different perspective. “I never
considered retiring. I was only 22 at the [Beijing]
Olympics. Obviously the Olympics didn’t go as
planned. It a;ected Carl [Meyer] and Eric more
than James [Dallinger] and me. Carl and Eric had
rowed another four years just to get two places
worse. For me, I had high expectations, but I never
considered retiring.”
After Beijing, Murray and teammates from the four
Meyer and Dallinger distanced themselves >
