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Returning Olympians right back into their stride
Men's Four kick on to semifinals in Amsterdam
Olympic medallists Matt Macdonald and Ollie Maclean have made a successful return to top-level competition on day two of the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
Both took a sabbatical from the sport after winning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics in the Men's Four in 2024.
"It's good to be back," says Ollie. "I wasn't sure after Paris if I was going to come back."
It's been a full-on couple of years.
" I moved back to the US and worked for a start-up in San Francisco for about nine months and then moved to New York for nine months and did a Masters on the side as well."
He and Matt then rowed in Japan before they both rejoined the Rowing New Zealand’s High Performance squad to be selected into the four alongside newcomers Harry Fitzpatrick and Fred Vavasour.
It's early days for the crew that's still in the development phase with the LA Olympics the long-term goal.
"Yeah, we're a pretty fresh crew, but it's an exciting project," says Ollie. "This was our first international race together…and what's exciting is that we can just build on each race because we have so many areas for improvement."
They head into the semifinal after finishing third in their heat behind the USA, who won in 6min 22.22sec, and France (6:25.62). New Zealand was just 0.02 behind the French after a promising final 800m.
"It just took us a while to get into that rhythm we've been finding in practice over the last 10 days," says Ollie. "We know what speeds we can do when we are in that rhythm…you can obviously see the damage we can do when we do hit it."
Matt Macdonald (str), Harry Fitzpatrick, Ollie Maclean and Fred Vavasour know they have the speed - now it's about getting onto rhythm earlier when they race the semifinals of the Men's Four.
The Women's Four of Alana Sherman, Isla Blake, Kate Haines and Ella Cossill also advanced to the semifinals after a gruelling matchup with Australia, Romania…and the gusting headwinds.
"Especially in that last 1K, which was pretty challenging," says Kate. "We knew it was going to be like that, but it doesn't make it any easier."
"I think people probably handled it better than us, but that's just part of it and we can step up. We know what we need to do, so I feel quite confident in that."
Nothing demonstrates the quality of the field like Ancuta Bodnar, the woman rowing in bow seat of the Romanian boat.
Before these world championships, she'd competed in 20 major regattas since 2018, including two Olympic Games. Of those 58 races, she's finished in the top two all but once, and that's rowing 4 different boat classes.
Australia dominated the race from start to finish crossing in 7:09.67, ahead of Romania (7:17.15) and then New Zealand (7:22.55).
Alana Sherman (str), Isla Blake, Kate Haines and Ella Cossill will race their semifinal of the Women's Four confident their best's still to come.
The draw for quarter final two of the Men's Double Sculls couldn't have been better for Ben Mason and Finn Hamill. They had a huge opportunity to test their boat speed and progress against Dutch power duo Simon van Dorp and Melvin Twellaar.
New Zealand established a clear hold on second place through the halfway mark, with the Dutch out in front.
The margin was just over three seconds at the 1500m mark before the Dutch eased off to cross in 6:44.95, New Zealand finishing in 6:47.99.
Ben and Finn go up against a tough field that includes Great Britain, Belgium and Czechia in tomorrow's semifinal.
Ben Mason (str) and Finn Hamill are through to the semifinals of the Men's Double after a tough quarter-final against the Netherlands.
The Women's Quad of Stella Clayton-Greene, Olivia Hay, Beckie Leigh and Veronica Wall finished fourth in their heat and will race the C Final at 12.30am on Friday NZT.
The Women's Quad of Stella Clayton-Greene (str), Olivia Hay, Beckie Leigh and Veronica Wall race the C Final on Friday.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and Maadi Cup-winning coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
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- Home
- /
- International Regattas
- /
- Returning Olympians right...
Returning Olympians right back into their stride
Men's Four kick on to semifinals in Amsterdam
Olympic medallists Matt Macdonald and Ollie Maclean have made a successful return to top-level competition on day two of the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
Both took a sabbatical from the sport after winning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics in the Men's Four in 2024.
"It's good to be back," says Ollie. "I wasn't sure after Paris if I was going to come back."
It's been a full-on couple of years.
" I moved back to the US and worked for a start-up in San Francisco for about nine months and then moved to New York for nine months and did a Masters on the side as well."
He and Matt then rowed in Japan before they both rejoined the Rowing New Zealand’s High Performance squad to be selected into the four alongside newcomers Harry Fitzpatrick and Fred Vavasour.
It's early days for the crew that's still in the development phase with the LA Olympics the long-term goal.
"Yeah, we're a pretty fresh crew, but it's an exciting project," says Ollie. "This was our first international race together…and what's exciting is that we can just build on each race because we have so many areas for improvement."
They head into the semifinal after finishing third in their heat behind the USA, who won in 6min 22.22sec, and France (6:25.62). New Zealand was just 0.02 behind the French after a promising final 800m.
"It just took us a while to get into that rhythm we've been finding in practice over the last 10 days," says Ollie. "We know what speeds we can do when we are in that rhythm…you can obviously see the damage we can do when we do hit it."
Matt Macdonald (str), Harry Fitzpatrick, Ollie Maclean and Fred Vavasour know they have the speed - now it's about getting onto rhythm earlier when they race the semifinals of the Men's Four.
The Women's Four of Alana Sherman, Isla Blake, Kate Haines and Ella Cossill also advanced to the semifinals after a gruelling matchup with Australia, Romania…and the gusting headwinds.
"Especially in that last 1K, which was pretty challenging," says Kate. "We knew it was going to be like that, but it doesn't make it any easier."
"I think people probably handled it better than us, but that's just part of it and we can step up. We know what we need to do, so I feel quite confident in that."
Nothing demonstrates the quality of the field like Ancuta Bodnar, the woman rowing in bow seat of the Romanian boat.
Before these world championships, she'd competed in 20 major regattas since 2018, including two Olympic Games. Of those 58 races, she's finished in the top two all but once, and that's rowing 4 different boat classes.
Australia dominated the race from start to finish crossing in 7:09.67, ahead of Romania (7:17.15) and then New Zealand (7:22.55).
Alana Sherman (str), Isla Blake, Kate Haines and Ella Cossill will race their semifinal of the Women's Four confident their best's still to come.
The draw for quarter final two of the Men's Double Sculls couldn't have been better for Ben Mason and Finn Hamill. They had a huge opportunity to test their boat speed and progress against Dutch power duo Simon van Dorp and Melvin Twellaar.
New Zealand established a clear hold on second place through the halfway mark, with the Dutch out in front.
The margin was just over three seconds at the 1500m mark before the Dutch eased off to cross in 6:44.95, New Zealand finishing in 6:47.99.
Ben and Finn go up against a tough field that includes Great Britain, Belgium and Czechia in tomorrow's semifinal.
Ben Mason (str) and Finn Hamill are through to the semifinals of the Men's Double after a tough quarter-final against the Netherlands.
The Women's Quad of Stella Clayton-Greene, Olivia Hay, Beckie Leigh and Veronica Wall finished fourth in their heat and will race the C Final at 12.30am on Friday NZT.
The Women's Quad of Stella Clayton-Greene (str), Olivia Hay, Beckie Leigh and Veronica Wall race the C Final on Friday.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and Maadi Cup-winning coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
