Congratulations to Old Boy Hamish Bond

By OBHS Foundation | Posted: Sunday August 14, 2016

Wonderful news that Old Boy Hamish Bond and Eric Murray won Gold at Rio. Congratulations to them both, wonderful achievement winning back to back Olympic Gold Medals. We are all very proud!

Hamish Bond and Eric Murray have underlined their names in New Zealand's Olympic pantheon, winning the country's first gold medal at the Rio Games.

The men's coxless pair triumphed on the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon by 2.8s to remain unbeaten in eight seasons, a feat ranking among the finest examples of New Zealand, let alone world, athletic supremacy.

They have gone 69 races at 24 international regattas without defeat in the class. No one has completed more in rowing's history. In a discipline of such technical nous, they have overcome every conceivable doubt in every heat, semifinal and final on every visit to a race course.

In case you were wondering, since their first win on June 19, 2009, they have gone 2610 days without defeat in tandem.

It's a record which is beginning to rival American Edwin Moses' 122-race stretch of nine years, nine months and nine days, in the 400m hurdles. They're challenging Moses' biblical namesake for parting water, too.

This win was the most defining of their careers.

With the clinical analysis of Lovelock at Berlin, the raw talent of Loader at Atlanta and the relentless determination of Ulmer in Athens, Bond and Murray dismantled the field.

Their London Games performance under coach Dick Tonks was so convincing it seemed a formality as they blitzed the Dorney Lake course to win by 4.46s. It was men versus buoys.