Rowing: Australian tactics too good for British pair

The last building on the road which leads down to the Rotsee, the "lake of the gods", is a garage with an Australian flag raised on a pole above it.

With its picnic tables under the trees behind, this equipment store with massage and rest facilities is the headquarters of Australia's rowing team in Europe, and every rower in the world cup has to walk past it at least twice a day. Including James Cracknell and Matthew Pinsent, scalped in the final of the coxless pairs by Drew Ginn and James Tomkins, outstanding Olympians all four of them.

After the surprising defeat of world champions Cracknell and Pinsent in Friday's heat, ending their unbeaten run of 25 races, the final went according to the Australians' plan and not according to the British one.

The former went out to have fun and see if the excitement could take them through the second half of the race to compensate for their inability to escape from the pack in the first half. The latter hoped to lead at halfway, try and maintain their speed for another 500 metres, and deliver a powerful burst at the end.

The Australians made a cautious start, while the British showed early, a significance obscured by a "glory or bust" start by both Croatia and Germany. The crucial move came after 1300 metres when Ginn and Tomkins eased into the lead by harnessing more power while maintaining their stroke rate of 35 or so to the minute. "We're not horse power giants," Ginn says.

Theirs was a triumph of technique over rough-edged power. Just as in the heat, their rhythm took them away until, seemingly effortlessly, they had a length of clear water. The Croatians Niksa and Sinisa Skelin surprisingly kept pace with Cracknell and Pinsent to the line, making second place a close run thing. "We were flat out for the second half," Ginn said. "The Croatians jumped out and we knew Matthew and James would have a good push."

The Australians are on the 7am flight home this morning to see their young daughters and resume training on the Yarra for September's World Championships, safe in the knowledge that they will probably not eyeball the Brits again until the final race there. The British return home to find another gear, Pinsent already clear in his mind what they have to do to find a few more seconds.

"We have a bigger engine than them, but we're not using it," Pinsent said. "It's not fitness, it's not strength that's at fault, it's the way we are moving the boat that's not efficient." His coach Jürgen Grobler knows too. "We could not follow them in the last quarter of the race," he said. "We didn't have the skills or potential to stay with them. It was our best race, but it was not good enough. I am not looking for excuses, but I would think Matthew and James are slower than their benchmark speed for here. And we have a new boat which we have only been using for 14 days, struggling to get it under control." Sir Steve Redgrave was on hand to see the race and see the record which he set in 1994 with Pinsent survive the Australian onslaught. He was here to receive the Keller Medal for his outstanding career in rowing, the sports' highest honour. He thus witnessed some outstanding achievements by other British crews, notably Frances Houghton and Debbie Flood winning the double sculls in an outstanding race. Their main opponents were the Lithuanians Kristina Paplavskaja and Birute Sakickiene who won bronze in Sydney and are consistent performers. They knew they had to keep on terms with them for 1500 metres to repeat their win in the first round of the World Cup a month ago, and this they did. They went through after 1200 metres and now lead the cup with maximum points.

The lightweight double scullers Helen Casey and Tracy Langlands ran in second to the German world champions Janet Raduenzel and Claudia Blasberg. They are improving every time they go out and head a good all round result by the lightweight team.

The heavyweight women's quad of Elise Laverick, Sarah Winckless, Katherine Grainger and Alison Mowbray were a disappointing fifth in their final, but the men's four of Jonno Devlin, Andrew Hodge, Ben Burch and Phil Simmons, second strings to the world-champion four who had to withdraw because of illness, excelled themselves to finish sixth.

They may be putting their markers down for seats in the eight who finished 11th, a shadow of what we tend to expect from a boat containing three Olympic champions from the Sydney 2000 crew. They seem to be going backwards and are in more need of a drawing board than Cracknell and Pinsent, when all is said and done.

The top three World Cup standings after two rounds are Germany with 142 points, Britain with 75 and Italy with 74.