DORNEY, England, July 31 (Reuters) – Niger’s Hamadou Djibo
Issaka, the novice rower who has earned comparisons to the slow
swimmer Eric “The Eel”, vowed to improve on Tuesday after again
finishing last in an Olympic semi-final that was some 28 seconds
slower than his previous race.

Djibo Issaka has won huge support from the mostly British
crowd in his three races at the Olympic regatta, with the
commentator encouraging him down the course on Tuesday as the
35-year-old lagged the field by 300 metres on the 2,000m course.

DORNEY, England (Reuters) – After the despair of a third straight Olympic silver at the last Games in Beijing, Britain’s Katherine Grainger was struggling to keep the smile from her face and the excitement from her mind after setting an Olympic best time in her heat on Monday.

Grainger believed she was finally going to land gold in 2008, only to see a Chinese crew row through her women’s quad in the final metres of the race.

DORNEY, England, July 30 (Reuters) – After the despair of a
third straight Olympic silver at the last Games in Beijing,
Britain’s Katherine Grainger was struggling to keep the smile
from her face and the excitement from her mind after setting an
Olympic best time in her heat on Monday.

Grainger believed she was finally going to land gold in
2008, only to see a Chinese crew row through her women’s quad in
the final metres of the race.

DORNEY, England (Reuters) – The Australian flagship men’s four backed up their tough-talking rhetoric with a new best Olympic time on Monday, setting the stage for a showdown with arch-rival champions Britain in what is likely to be the race of the London 2012 regatta.

Triple Olympic champion Drew Ginn set the tone for the British-Australian “Ashes” clash last week by using his last press conference to suggest his Oarsome Foursome had “scared the hell” out of the British boat by beating them in their last race in Munich.

DORNEY, England (Reuters) – The Australian flagship men’s four backed up their tough-talking rhetoric with a new best Olympic time on Monday, setting the stage for a showdown with arch-rival champions Britain in what is likely to be the race of the London 2012 regatta.

Triple Olympic champion Drew Ginn set the tone for the British-Australian “Ashes” clash last week by using his last press conference to suggest his Oarsome Foursome had “scared the hell” out of the British boat by beating them in their last race in Munich.

DORNEY, England, July 30 (Reuters) – The Australian flagship
men’s four backed up their tough-talking rhetoric with a new
best Olympic time on Monday, setting the stage for a showdown
with arch-rival champions Britain in what is likely to be the
race of the London 2012 regatta.

Triple Olympic champion Drew Ginn set the tone for the
British-Australian “Ashes” clash last week by using his last
press conference to suggest his Oarsome Foursome had “scared the
hell” out of the British boat by beating them in their last race
in Munich.

DORNEY, England (Reuters) – The British men’s eight surged to a place in the Olympic final on Monday, keeping alive the dreams of the squad’s oldest rower Greg Searle and the new great hope of the team, Constantine Louloudis.

If the British win the final on Wednesday they would become one of the stories of the Games, with the 40-year-old Searle returning to the sport to claim a second Olympic gold 20 years after his first with his brother Jonny in Barcelona.

DORNEY, England, July 30 (Reuters) – The British men’s eight
surged to a place in the Olympic final on Monday, keeping alive
the dreams of the squad’s oldest rower Greg Searle and the new
great hope of the team, Constantine Louloudis.

If the British win the final on Wednesday they would become
one of the stories of the Games, with the 40-year-old Searle
returning to the sport to claim a second Olympic gold 20 years
after his first with his brother Jonny in Barcelona.

DORNEY, England (Reuters) – Any member of the United States men’s eight hit by last minute nerves before their Olympic rowing final will need to look no further than to the right-hand bank and the lone figure of the rugged Mike Teti perched on his bike.

The 55-year-old coach from Philadelphia has taken on near legendary status in American rowing – breaking records, forming winning crews and all with an unorthodox style.

DORNEY, England, July 29 (Reuters) – Any member of the
United States men’s eight hit by last minute nerves before their
Olympic rowing final will need to look no further than to the
right-hand bank and the lone figure of the rugged Mike Teti
perched on his bike.

The 55-year-old coach from Philadelphia has taken on near
legendary status in American rowing – breaking records, forming
winning crews and all with an unorthodox style.