Olympic dream fades as top British pair crushed by New Zealand

We once hoped they would be the crew to take the Olympic pairs gold on home water in 2012. After this year's Henley Regatta, however, those dreams appear to be in tatters as Britain's two best rowers, Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Peter Reed, were crushed – for the ninth time – by Hamish Murray and Eric Bond, New Zealand's world champions. The British squandered their early lead in the final of the Silver Goblets when they tensed up in the rough conditions. At the finish line the Kiwis were so far in front that the verdict recorded was: "Easily." Triggs-Hodge made no attempt to excuse their performance and said his pair lost all their cohesion after two minutes: "We had a really good platform, then it all went bang and I saw them disappear." When asked if he expected to compete at this year's world championships in the pair, Triggs-Hodge said: "I'm not thinking about that now. We've got four days to get ourselves together before we have to face them again in Lucerne." The British crew's coach, Jürgen Gröbler, said a steering error by Triggs-Hodge played a crucial part in the outcome. But in truth, the British were outclassed. Gröbler may now decide to switch his two best men into a four before this year's world championships in October. The British team's woes before the season's third World Cup regatta, starting on Friday in Lucerne, were further compounded when their hitherto unbeaten double of Matt Wells and Marcus Bateman stopped sculling, while being led by the superb French combination of Cedric Berrest and Julien Bahain. But there was some comfort for Gröbler when his quadruple scull showed pace and verve to register an emphatic victory against a strong US crew.