THE SPORT OF ROWING Eight in 1984, Peter decided to focus on the lightweight singles. Starting as a sweep rower, Antonie had learned to scull in 1980 and rowed in the Australian Lightweight Double in 1981 with Phil Gardiner. They came in eleventh. Antonie: “We struggled. We were sweep rowers learning to scull. We had a hard catch but had learned no finesse or the need for a stronger ‘back half’ of the stroke. It was a disaster.”6274 For 1985, Antonie relocated from Melbourne to Sydney to train with a group of scullers for four months under Rusty Robertson, for whom he had won a Silver Medal in the lightweight eights in 1983. Paul Reedy, another member of the group: “The training was a genuine overload-type program. For us, it was very similar to the training we had done the year before in the Olympic Quad,6275 and we managed to come out the other side of that quite well, so we all had confidence in Rusty and in what we were doing. But there is no question that it was the hardest stuff we had ever done.”6276 After the training, Peter was “on fire”6277 in selection and racing in Australia, but by the World Championships in Hazewinkel he looked tired and overtrained. He placed only ninth. 1986 In 1986 under coach David Yates, Peter again won everything in Australia, won Lucerne in 7:07.75, leading all the way and beating one future and two former World Champions in the process, and then won the Commonwealth Games in Strathclyde, Scotland, in a time twelve seconds faster 6274 Qtd. by Poke, p. 64 6275 See later in this chapter. 6276 Ibid, p. 81 6277 Poke, p. 82 than Steve Redgrave’s6278 in winning the heavyweight singles. At the World Championships at Holme Pierrepont, Antonie lost to 1982 Champion Raymond Haberl in his heat, went through the reps, then lost to 1983-84 Champion Bjarne Eltang in his semi-final. David Yates: “At that stage we thought Peter was over his peak and pretty tired. So in response to that situation, we did something that we would not normally do and called a day off between the semis and the final. I wouldn’t let him row. It was a bit of a worry from the point of view of making weight, but I felt it was necessary for him to freshen up a bit. He was pretty flat.”6279 Biographer Robin Poke: “Antonie did in the final what he had done in Switzerland and Scotland and what he planned to do in this race – he blazed out of the start and got his bow in front. “After 500 metres the lead was a mere 1.32 seconds. Over the next 800 metres Antonie increased his lead, first gaining clear water from the pursuing field, then pushing out to almost two boat lengths. It looked too easy, and even before the marker indicating there were just 500 metres to cover, the commentators were stating that [the others] could not afford to let Antonie get away. “Almost immediately, Eltang began to move. Antonie had perhaps a five second buffer, but that rapidly became less than two seconds with 250 metres to go. “Eltang drew within half a boat length of the Australian. Antonie responded. His rating went above 40 strokes a minute, and he appeared for a few seconds to be holding the Dane out. But Eltang came at him once more. This was unbearable. “With ten metres to go and with Eltang surging yet again, through what appeared to 6278 See Chapter 130. 6279 Qtd. by Poke, p. 91 1748
