Rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's coxless four

The men's coxless four (M4-) competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics took place at Lake Casitas in Ventura County, California, United States. It was held from 31 July to 5 August and the outcome was wide open due to the Eastern Bloc boycott and thus the absence of the dominating team from the Soviet Union, and previously East Germany. The event was won by the team from New Zealand.

Background Beginning in 1966, East Germany was for many years the dominating nation in the men's coxless four event at European, World, and Olympic level. Their last gold came with the 1980 Summer Olympics. At the three subsequent World Championships, the Soviet Union had the best success (with one gold and two silvers), followed by Switzerland (one gold and one silver) and West Germany (one gold). With the Eastern Bloc nations absent due to their boycott, the field was wide open.

Previous M4- competitions Competition Gold Silver Bronze 1966 World Rowing Championships 1967 European Rowing Championships 1968 Summer Olympics 1969 European Rowing Championships 1970 World Rowing Championships 1971 European Rowing Championships 1972 Summer Olympics 1973 European Rowing Championships 1974 World Rowing Championships 1975 World Rowing Championships 1976 Summer Olympics 1977 World Rowing Championships 1978 World Rowing Championships 1979 World Rowing Championships 1980 Summer Olympics 1981 World Rowing Championships 1982 World Rowing Championships 1983 World Rowing Championships

Results

Heats The first two races were held on 31 July. Five teams competed per heat, and the winner would progress to the A final. The remaining teams would progress to the repechage.

Heat 1 RankRowerCountryTimeNotes 1 Les O'ConnellShane O'BrienConrad RobertsonKeith Trask 6:08.41 FA 2 Norbert KeßlauVolker GrabowJörg PuttlitzGuido Grabow 6:09.54 R 3 Michael JessenLars NielsenPer RasmussenErik Christiansen 6:15.58 R 4 Tim TurnerTed GibsonDavid JohnsonStephen Beatty 6:24.79 R 5 Gu JiahongTang Hongwei Liu BaogangWang Hongbing 6:45.25 R

Heat 2 RankRowerCountryTimeNotes 1 David ClarkJonathan SmithPhillip SteklAlan Forney 6:11.58 FA 2 Anders WilgotsonHans SvenssonLars-Åke LindqvistAnders Larson 6:13.40 R 3 Bruno SaileJürg WeitnauerHans-Konrad TrümplerStefan Netzle 6:19.23 R 4 David DoyleJames LoweDuncan FisherJohn Bentley 6:22.14 R 5 Jonathan CliftJohn GarrettMartin KnightJohn Bland 6:23.95 R

Repechage Two repechages were held on 2 August with four teams each. The first two teams would progress to the A final, whilst the remaining two teams would go to the B final.

Heat 1 The Chinese team changed all four seats for the repechage. This was the only seat change during the coxless four competition.

RankRowerCountryTimeNotes 1 Bruno SaileJürg WeitnauerHans-Konrad TrümplerStefan Netzle 6:20.44 FA 2 Norbert KeßlauVolker GrabowJörg PuttlitzGuido Grabow 6:22.54 FA 3 David DoyleJames LoweDuncan FisherJohn Bentley 6:29.04 FB 4 Wang HongbingLiu BaogangGu JiahongTang Hongwei 6:46.18 FB

Heat 2 RankRowerCountryTimeNotes 1 Anders WilgotsonHans SvenssonLars-Åke LindqvistAnders Larson 6:21.22 FA 2 Michael JessenLars NielsenPer RasmussenErik Christiansen 6:22.94 FA 3 Tim TurnerTed GibsonDavid JohnsonStephen Beatty 6:28.11 FB 4 Jonathan CliftJohn GarrettMartin KnightJohn Bland 6:32.84 FB

Finals Four teams competed in the B final for places 7 to 10, and six teams competed in the A final.

B final The B final was held on 3 August.

RankRowerCountryTime 7 Tim TurnerTed GibsonDavid JohnsonStephen Beatty 6:26.10 8 David DoyleJames LoweDuncan FisherJohn Bentley 6:28.31 9 Jonathan CliftJohn GarrettMartin KnightJohn Bland 6:32.13 10 Wang HongbingLiu BaogangGu JiahongTang Hongwei 6:50.03

A final The A final was held on 5 August.

RankRowerCountryTime Les O'ConnellShane O'BrienConrad RobertsonKeith Trask 6:03.48 David ClarkJonathan SmithPhillip SteklAlan Forney 6:06.10 Michael JessenLars NielsenPer RasmussenErik Christiansen 6:07.72 4 Norbert KeßlauVolker GrabowJörg PuttlitzGuido Grabow 6:09.27 5 Bruno SaileJürg WeitnauerHans-Konrad TrümplerStefan Netzle 6:09.50 6 Anders WilgotsonHans SvenssonLars-Åke LindqvistAnders Larson 6:11.71

Notes

References

Volume 1 Part 1 Volume 1 Part 2 Volume 1 Part 3

Volume 2 Part 1 Volume 2 Part 2 Volume 2 Part 3 (page 469 onwards)