Five people for four places - one of us is not going to make it

Matthew Pinsent

Ed Coode and Tim Foster

"You can see how complicated it is - it affects everybody," he explained to the anxious quintet.

"It is quite worrying," Foster confided to his video camera.

The next step was a trip to Seville for training and competition as the tension continued to heighten.

"I can't concentrate on getting the pair right as I still have the four in the back of my mind," confessed Coode.

Coode's anxiety would not have been helped by the four's victory without him in Seville.

Back home the training intensified too and Steve Redgrave suffered a miserable 38th birthday as he collapsed attempting a vital fitness test.

"It shows me there's something not quite right," said a worried Redgrave.

His concerns increased after the National Pairs Championships in April when himself and Matthew Pinsent finished third.

Steve Redgrave during a training session

Foster and James Cracknell won the event and that possibly proved the final plus in Foster's favour.

Early one April morning, Grobler called the squad in and announced his decision.

Coode will still go to the Olympics - he is to partner Greg Searle in the pairs.

That left the World Cup season as the final burst of competition before the Olympics and after wins in Munich and Vienna there followed a shock defeat in Lucernne in July.

That prompted inevitable doubt over their chances in Sydney, but Redgrave, bidding for that phenomenal fifth, gave a typically blunt response.

"The story is not over yet," he said. "We are going to win the gold medal."

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