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  | | Saturday, 23 September, 2000, 01:48 GMT 02:48 UK Shining in the shadows  A pair of winners: Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave As partnerships go it has had few sporting equals but every now and then, Matthew Pinsent must yearn for some recognition as an individual and not just as the name that fits on the end of Redgrave and ... He has, after all, won three Olympic medals - more than the likes of Daley Thompson and Seb Coe.
So it does not compare to you-know-who, but nevertheless a third gold medal elevates Pinsent into the realms of British sporting greats and at 29 he is young enough to add more as well. At least the British Olympic Association, and the rower's fellow Team GB competitors recognised as much when he was chosen to carry the flag at last week's opening ceremony. Rector's son Pinsent has been collecting medals with metronomic regularity ever since he first took to the water at Eton. His first significant honour came 12 years ago when he won gold at the junior world championships - his partner was Tim Foster, now another of the four - and he has won a medal at either the World Championships or the Olympics every year since. It is a record that few can come even close to matching, apart from one man of course. "I have a suspicion that whatever I did there would never be a definite point when I was suddenly better than Steve," said Pinsent.
"It would be a little like Pele. No matter how good any footballer is they will never be better than Pele. He has somehow become ensconced in people's minds as the best footballer ever. No one can knock him off that perch." If Redgrave is Pele, then Pinsent is Garrincha, except twice the size. It was his coach at Eton, Paul Wright, who first realised the potential - a fact that Pinsent recalled not long after he had won his first gold at Barcelona in 1992. After the ceremony, while Redgrave was being tested, Pinsent sat down and wrote Wright a postcard. Pinsent at first saw rowing as something to be enjoyed, something to keep him off those famous playing fields. "Summer was great because you would toddle around the country doing races, meeting girls and drinking beer," he remembered. But by the time he left school, he knew what he wanted.
Two years after that junior gold he teamed up with Redgrave and the build up to his first Olympics began. It was a troublesome beginning as Redgrave was ill for a large part of the training before Barcelona. It all came right, though, as the pair took gold number three for Redgrave and number one for Pinsent. Between that moment and the time they crossed the line in Atlanta four years later, the pair did not lose a race. Atlanta was perceived to be the end of the partnership. An exhausted Redgrave let loose his famous 'shoot me if you see me in a boat again' line and then decided to get back in a boat.
The pair became a foursome and still the success came until they lost in a World Cup regatta in Lucerne in July. "We made a lot of mistakes," said Pinsent. "But we will definitely put those right. "We are going to go to Sydney and win." While Redgrave will still draw all the attention, it is now Pinsent who is arguably the key man in the boat. During their build up, Redgrave admitted as much in his usual strightforward manner.
"Matt is the best," he said. "I always new this day would come. I knew that at some stage he would overtake me." James Cracknell, the other member of the four, is also quick to recognise Pinsent's stature. "Matt is the best person I have ever rowed with," said Cracknell. With three gold medals, perhaps Pinsent has a name of his own now. | |
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