Northwich Rowing Club members including family and friends
waited with great anticipation and excitement for the Men’s Eight Final on
Wednesday morning 1 August. Many club members were in the grandstands with others
watching via any media source they could find. Our interest focused on one
individual in the Eight, Matt Langridge sitting in the seven seat, needless to
say all of us rooting for the crew to win Gold. Everyone including the crew knew
it would be a hard, demanding race as the favourite crew Germany ,
undefeated over three years, was never going to make it easy for them.
Team GB was determined to go for Gold; they were on a
mission, confident and believing in themselves. The race was epic! It was a
fabulous start. They held their position in second place with Germany in
their sights. It was imperative they stayed with them in the first 500 m which
they did. The crew looked strong, gaining on Germany with every stroke. They
pushed hard with the gap closing at 1000m. The crowded grandstands jubilant
cheers surely lifted them as they pushed past Germany to lead the race. Team GB
was flying putting Germany
under pressure! The German Eight lifted the rating to 40 strokes a minute and
went into another gear, opening out their lead. In the last few meters Team GB
slipped into third winning Bronze as Canada edged past them on the
finish line to win Silver.
Team GB did everything right. They admitted they had done
all they possibly could. The medal may not be the colour they wanted but in our
eyes they are all heroes and deserve our respect for their immense effort,
considering they came to this boat as eight individuals being successfully
moulded together over a short period of time to produce the Olympic Eight.
Perhaps they can be comforted in the knowledge the nation was behind them 100%.
These Olympic Games will “Inspire a Generation” of that
there is no doubt. Matthew is and will always be an inspiration to us here at
Northwich Rowing Club where he was introduced as 12 year old to the sport he
loves. His goal then was to race in the Olympics. He has achieved is and so much more in his rowing career,
racing at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 winning Silver in the Men’s Eight and now
London 2012.
We are all so very proud of him!
