THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT In Montréal, they employed a different strategy, shadowing the leading New Zealand Eight for 1,000 meters before taking the lead. For the entire second 1,000, GDR slowly moved up, first overtaking the Kiwis and continuing to move inexorably on the Brits, catching them with 250 to go. Baillieu: “In ‘75-6, Janoušek’s Eight trained basically in very short outings that were all anaerobic. They didn’t do any endurance training, hardly any at all, all sprints, and it showed, and when they rowed the final in ‘76 in Montréal, they led the East Germans until the last 300 meters. The East Germans rowed past them just because they had a greater depth of endurance. “But they probably spent two, even three times as much time on the water. You have to give it to the English guys. They were rag tag and bobtail in shapes and sizes, and they got within 150 or 200 meters or something of getting the Gold Medal.”5391 Cultural Divide The Observer: “The [1976] Eight, in which Oxbridge’s Hugh Matheson5392 and Tim Crooks pulled together so effectively with Thames Tradesmen’s Fred Smallbone, Jim Clark and Lenny Robertson, won Silver in Montréal.”5393 The above quote attempted to describe the cultural divide that still plagued British rowing, the University-trained social elite versus the working-class athletes of the Thames Tideway and Tyneside. The Guardian’s Christopher Dodd provides some corrections: “Crooks is not Oxbridge. Matheson is Oxford, Penn A.C. and Tideway Scullers. Maxwell is Cambridge and Tideway Scullers. Lester, Crooks and Yallop are Leander (cadet scheme), and the rest, including coxswain 5391 Baillieu, personal conversation, 2008 5392 See Chapter 111. 5393 Henderson, op. cit. Sweeney and Bill Mason, who was in the crew, in ‘74 are Thames Tradesmen.”5394 Baillieu: “Bob Janoušek’s great achievement was that he recognized the limitations of what he’d got and made the best of it.”5395 Topolski: “Often coaches need to adapt to their circumstances and also to the way their athletes row. It can depend, too, on how much time they have to produce their crew. “I think that Bob Janoušek adopted his high-rating style and training programme to adapt to the restrictions in Britain where many of his athletes had full time jobs and had to fit training in short intensive bursts at each end of the day. He was used to the system at home where his athletes were full time.”5396 Geoffrey Page: “That autumn [1976], Bob Janoušek resigned as the ARA’s national coach, disillusioned by the hit-and- miss attitude he found among all sportsmen in England.”5397 Historic Impact Bob Janoušek quickly turned his talents to building boats of new composite materials under the name of Carbocraft Limited, UK5398 and later under his own name. Though he’s now retired, he still has a hand in the boat business. Christopher Dodd: “Bob Janoušek made everything in British rowing that came after him possible by proving that Great Britain could no longer merely boat the best college crew and expect to compete 5394 Dodd, personal correspondence, 2011 5395 Baillieu, personal conversation, 2008 5396 Topolski, personal correspondence, 2008 5397 Page, p. 146 5398 Carbocraft USA soon evolved into Vespoli USA. 1491
