Flood digs deep to extend career as Hodge cruises

Where thousands of people delight at the many sights to behold, both sporting and architectural at the Olympic Park, the road to the rowing venue weaves through tranquil leafy suburbs and, on the home straight, past a field of sheep.

Yet the stakes here are just as high as they are back east across London in Stratford.

For two of Yorkshire’s stars of Beijing yesterday morning – Debbie Flood and Andrew Triggs Hodge – there were contrasting levels of intensity.

Guiseley’s Flood was staring down the barrel of a gut-wrenching finish to her glittering career as the British women’s quad sculls languished in last position at the halfway mark of their repechage.

The 32-year-old retires after tomorrow’s final, and seemed about to hang up the oar with a whimper.

Instead, in summoning up all the strength she, Frances Houghton, Melanie Wilson and Beth Rodford could muster, and spurred on by a raucous home crowd, they stormed through to finish third.

That resulted in a place in 
tomorrow’s final and one last shot – albeit a long one – at winning an elusive gold to add to her silvers from Athens and Beijing.

“It’s going to take an exceptional race, the race of our lives,” said Flood. “But in a way the heat and the repechage were possibly the most pressurised races we could have had, so to get through to that final in a home Olympics is great.

“And now we’re in that final you all start level again.

“In a way the pressure is off a bit, now we just need to relax and row as hard as we possibly can.

“We know we’ve got to raise our game.”

Flood only returned to her favoured boat two months ago after an injury-interrupted first half of the season.

Since Beijing she has worked as a prison officer and explored other avenues that she will pursue with more urgency after tomorrow.

Until then the focus is on the final and trying to reel in the Ukranian and German boats, who are expected to slug it out for the gold.

But if the reaction they got from the crowd which pulled them over the line is anything to go by, Flood and her crew should not be discounted.

“The crowd were so amazing, so loud, and it was pretty emotional over the last 500 metres,” said Flood.

“No matter how you hurt and how much you’re suffering, we’re at a home Olympics and that crowd is lifting us and it will get every ounce of energy out of us that we can possibly give.

“It was an emotional race, we knew it was going to be tough, a bit like a final really. We had to really hold our nerve, and our composure and just grit our teeth through that second half.

“Everyone was going to be absolutely on the edge to make that final. It was important we didn’t panic.

“We knew it would be a close race, and wherever we were at halfway we knew we had to be unflustered, unfazed and to trust that we had enough power to reel the other crews in. That’s what we did and we managed to come through at the end.”

As Flood was breathing a sigh of relief at the extension to her rowing career by a couple of days, Hebden Bridge’s Hodge described the rest of this week as “the last few days of my life”.

“That’s how it has to be as far as I’m concerned. Get to the final and then it all resets,” said Hodge, who has to be one of the host nation’s most driven Olympians.

His men’s four cruised through their heat, but for the 34-year-old Beijing gold medallist it is all about advancing from Thursday’s semi-final and rowing to the best of their capabilities in Saturday’s final.

Once there they will go head-to-head with the Australian team in the latest chapter of a rivalry that is brewing nicely among the greenery of South Buckinghamshire.

After stopping the clock three seconds quicker than the home team in their heat, the Australian team cranked up the pressure by suggesting they scare the hell out of the British crew of Hodge, Pete Reed, Tom James and Alex Gregory.

For Hodge, it was the red rag to a bull which he was seeking.

He said: “The Aussies are great characters, they’re always going to bring something to an event.

“They are lively guys, they play their game like we play ours.

“It’s good to hear they’ve got a lot of fight in them, that’s just what we need in an Olympic Games.

“I’m always up for a fight; it’s what I love most, getting into a boat and going up against the best.

“We know what we’ve got, we know what we can do, now it’s time to race.

“I don’t know what the other guys have within them.

“We know we’re going to have a big race and we’re preparing to fight every inch.

“I feel we’ll be right in the mix and we’ll give ourselves every opportunity.”

An Ashes-style duel is simmering beautifully out in the countryside.