Don't blame the rowers

Richard Phelps - Olympic rower and member of the Five Live commentary team - ponders the cause of some disappointing British results in his regular Olympic column for BBC Sport Online.

British rowing must applaud its single scullers, Mathew Wells and Alison Mowbray, who have qualified for their respective semi-finals on Thursday.

Considering that neither of them had secured an Olympic place until mid-July their achievements are all the more commendable. Unfortunatey the same glowing report cannot be written of the women's pair and double scull.

As both the pair (Dot Blackie and Cath Bishop) and the double (Sarah Winkless and Frances Houghton) have failed to qualify for their respective semi finals the best they can hope to finish is 13th.

That alone is unsatisfactory, but when you add the fact that Dot and Cath were silver medallists only two years ago and that Britain were world champions in the double sculls in the same year, these results are simply unacceptable.

Dot Blackie and Cath Bishop in the pairs

But it would be wrong to point the finger at the athletes. By stint of their medal two years ago Dot and Cath have proved they are made of the right stuff and although the athletes in the boat have changed since Britain took gold in the double, it was a priority boat with two of our best scullers on board.

So if the athletes aren't in question who is? The answer isn't a "who", but a "what" - British rowing.

Let down

Through a mixture of bad luck, inappropriate treatment, mismanagement and an element of ruthlessness typical of Olympic level sport these athletes have been let down by the system.

By all accounts Frances Houghton came out on top at the spring Olympic sculling trials, so how can it be that she is effectively out of the Games when a British quadruple scull may win a medal?

Even to an outsider of the sport that must seem bizarre, but to Frances it must seem cruel bordering on unjust.

Even worse is the case of Dot and Cath. Most in British rowing are aware of their bust up with the chief coach and departure from the centre of women's rowing.

Whilst this was more akin to the world of football or tennis rather than the staid world of British rowing, the system should have stepped in and prevented that departure or made more efforts for something to be put in place to catch them.

Instead they have freefalled from silver to, well, the worst it can be is 15th. British rowing cannot afford to let such talent underperform, there isn't enough to allow such wastage.