Rowing at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's Coxless Pair

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Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
Australia Drew Ginn James Tomkins	Croatia Sinisa Skelin Niksa Skelin	South Africa Donovan Cech Ramon di Clemente

[edit] Heats

SF denotes qualification to Semifinal.
R denotes qualification to Repechage.

[edit] Heat 1 (August 14)

Australia (Drew Ginn, James Tomkins) 6:55.04 SF
Serbia and Montenegro (Nikola Stojic, Mladen Stegic) 6:58.11 SF
Great Britain (Toby Garbett, Rick Dunn) 6:58.95 SF
Argentina (Walter Naneder, Marcos Morales) 7:02.29 R
Slovenia (Matija Pavšič, Andrej Hrabar) 7:05.36 R

[edit] Heat 2 (August 14)

South Africa (Donovan Cech, Ramon di Clemente) 6:57.06 SF
Croatia (Sinisa Skelin, Niksa Skelin) 7:01.28 SF
United States (Luke Walton, Artour Samsonov) 7:11.81 SF
Czech Republic (Adam Michalek, Petr Imre) 7:26.19 R

[edit] Heat 3 (August 14)

New Zealand (Nathan Twaddle, George Bridgewater) 6:54.75 SF
Canada (Dave Calder, Chris Jarvis) 6:56.23 SF
Italy (Giuseppe de Vita, Dario Lari) 7:03.12 SF
Germany (Tobias Kuehne, Jan Herzog) 7:14.16 R

[edit] Repechage

SF denotes qualification to Semifinal.

[edit] Repechage 1 (August 17)

Germany (Tobias Kuehne, Jan Herzog) 6:28.40 SF
Argentina (Walter Naneder, Marcos Morales) 6:28.98 SF
Slovenia (Matija Pavšič, Andrej Hrabar) 6:30.89 SF
Czech Republic (Adam Michalek, Petr Imre) 6:33.24

[edit] Semifinals

FA denotes qualification to Final A.
FB denotes qualification to Final B.

[edit] Semifinal A (August 18)

Australia (Drew Ginn, James Tomkins) 6:22.60 FA
Croatia (Sinisa Skelin, Niksa Skelin) 6:23.57 FA
New Zealand (Nathan Twaddle, George Bridgewater) 6:24.49 FA
Great Britain (Toby Garbett, Rick Dunn) 6:25.06 FB
Italy (Giuseppe de Vita, Dario Lari) 6:31.26 FB
Argentina (Walter Naneder, Marcos Morales) 7:19.57 FB

[edit] Semifinal B (August 18)

Germany (Tobias Kuehne, Jan Herzog) 6:25.47 FA
Serbia and Montenegro (Nikola Stojic, Mladen Stegic) 6:27.50 FA
South Africa (Donovan Cech, Ramon di Clemente) 6:28.48 FA
United States (Luke Walton, Artour Samsonov) 6:32.51 FB
Slovenia (Matija Pavšič, Andrej Hrabar) 6:46.12 FB
Canada (Dave Calder, Chris Jarvis) Excluded FB

Semifinal B is a close, dramatic race. 100 meters from the finishing line, there are four boats in contention for the 3 slots in the finals. Germany holds a small lead followed by Canada, South Africa and Serbia and Montenegro. Canada suddenly veers off course, interfering with South Africa and allowing Serbia to pass it. South Africa protests and Canada is excluded from the results. Canada requests that they be allowed into the Finals as the seventh boat, but their request is denied. Canada then chooses not to participate in the B Finals.

[edit] Finals

[edit] Final A (August 21)

Australia (Drew Ginn, James Tomkins) 6:30.76
Croatia (Sinisa Skelin, Niksa Skelin) 6:32.64
South Africa (Donovan Cech, Ramon di Clemente) 6:33.40
New Zealand (Nathan Twaddle, George Bridgewater) 6:34.24
Serbia and Montenegro (Nikola Stojic, Mladen Stegic) 6:39.74
Germany (Tobias Kuehne, Jan Herzog) 6:46.50

In the finals, Australia's Drew Ginn and James Tomkins establish a early lead over the field which they stretch to 2 seconds at the 1000 meter mark (halfway), with Crotia in second and Serbia in third. Over the last 1000 meters, Australia maintains its margin over the field, Croatia continues to run second and South Africa rows through the field to finish third. For Tomkins, it is his third gold medal and fourth overall, and for Ginn it is his second gold.