Coxless Fours, Men

Australia had won the men’s coxless fours at the last two editions of the World Championships and was represented at the 1992 Summer Olympics by its most recent squad: Andrew Cooper, [Mike McKay(/athletes/35479), Nick Green, and James Tomkins. They were the favorites in the event and seemed unlikely to be challenged by any other crew. In the opening round they won their heat in the fastest time, but the Americans were not far behind in their own. The United States lineup contained three runners-up from the most recent World Championships, Thomas Bohrer, Pat Manning, Jr.,and Jeff McLaughlin, and was augmented by Doug Burden, a bronze medalist from the coxed eights event from the 1988 Games. McLaughlin was also a bronze medalist from that event, while Bohrer had earned silver in that year’s coxless fours tournament. The third heat was won by Spain, whose crew included one of Spain’s two Olympic rowing medalists, Fernando Climent. Australia and the United States were the heat winners again in the semi-finals, and again were separated by only a small margin of time, while Spain was eliminated. In the final, however, Australia mustered up its strength reserves and won handily, leaving the silver medal to the Americans. Slovenia, meanwhile, whose squad included 1988 coxless pairs bronze medalist Sadik Mujkič, took bronze by edging out the Germans in a photo finish by a margin of 0.15 seconds. This gave Slovenia one of its first Olympic rowing medals as an independent nation, the other being bronze in the men’s coxless pairs.