An Inside Story

When Dorney Lake was awarded the 2006 World Rowing Championships four years ago I was pleased, but found it hard to get that excited at the time. Everything we do is so focused on the next Games that it's impossible to see beyond a four year Olympic cycle and I didn't have a clue whether I'd be at Eton in a boat or on the river bank. When the dust had settled after Athens and I decided that I wanted to row in Beijing all that started to change and I began to dream about racing the World on home water. I knew I was incredibly lucky that the timing was just right for me - that I was rowing and doing well just as the Worlds were coming to UK.

WRCs only come to your country once every 20 years so even Matthew Pinsent, with everything he won, never had the chance to be World Champion on home water. Steve Redgrave won the World Champs at home when they were held in Nottingham in 1986. I remember Steve telling me that the atmosphere had been electric and the home crowd was fantastic. When I thought that that had been 20 years ago before Steve had won his five Golds my mind started to race at what these World Championships would be like now that the country had heard of rowing. There was another good reason why Dorney 2006 was coming at just the right time. I remember James saying after Athens that when you're trying to decide whether you want to row for another four years to the next Olympics you have to remember what it's like two years into a cycle. That's when you're furthest away from both the memories of the last Games and the anticipation of the next. Four years is a long time to row for (especially when you've been rowing for 17 years already!) but having a home Championships doesn't half take the sting out of that middle year.

So as I got back into training after Athens and began to prepare not just for Beijing but also Dorney, there were mostly two things going through my mind. Firstly how great it would be to win in front of a home crowd. It still amazes me how many people came out to Athens to support us and I couldn't help thinking that if that many came all the way out there to cheer us on then how many would come now that we were rowing just down the road? Doing our "lap of honour" in front of the British supporters after the Athens final was sensational and I couldn't wait for another piece of the action. Secondly, though, I knew that if a home WRC represented an opportunity for me then it was also an opportunity for everyone else in the World who would like nothing more than to spoil the party and beat the Brits on home water. In 2003 the Worlds were held in Milan and for all that season the Italians had the strongest and most competitive team I've ever seen them have. Ultimately though they couldn't hold their form and had a terrible home Championships. I remember there was a feeling that the other nations took special delight from beating the Italians just because it was "their" World Championships. I don't have a problem with that at all - that's sport. But I was determined to be ready and up for being that crew that everyone else loved to hate.

As the Dorney World Champs got closer I got more and more excited about the big race. There were other big races in the meantime. Our first race as the British Coxless Four in May 2005 was also at Dorney in the World Cup Series and the first international race after Athens. All eyes seemed to be on us to see what the future of British rowing would be now that the big names had retired. That didn't really bother us - we just wanted to get the new Olympiad started and we won that first race comfortably and went on to win the World Champs in Japan. By the time we got to Dorney this summer we had been unbeaten in two years. The press jumped on the idea that going into a home Championships undefeated somehow put us under more pressure but I never understood how winning more races can be a bad thing. We were undefeated but there was one new crew in the event at Dorney. Jürgen is always telling us that crews don't move out of strong events anymore, they move into them. USA, one of the strongest rowing nations, had done just that by putting their top guys into a four. Fortunately we drew USA in the first race which was the best thing that could have happened - there's nothing better than a tough race to get yourself into a regatta. In the end we beat them quite comfortably, which was a great start and the five of us knew we were going to win on Saturday.

Before the Worlds started, I decided I really wanted to enjoy the whole thing. I knew it was going to be the best WRC I'm ever going to go to, and I was right. The organisers did an amazing job of putting on an event that looked and felt not so much like a World Champs but an Olympic Games. All the athletes and supporters recognised what a great regatta it was and as a British athlete I was really proud at what a good job GB had done. The key to whole thing was the 600 volunteers who were so helpful and friendly and did a superb job at looking after us and making sure everything ran smoothly. Two of the volunteers were Jules and Toby and I'd often see them on duty when we came down for our first outing in the morning and then again after we'd gone back to our hotel for a rest and come down for another session at the end of the day. But even though all the volunteers were working so hard they seemed to be enjoying themselves just as much as the athletes!

In the end we had a good semi-final and then won the final quite comfortably and it was time for our lap of honour. We parked up the boat and got out to say thank you to everyone for coming down to cheer us on. It was one of those memory book moments as we were surrounded by people saying well done and within a few minutes four beers were being passed over the tops of everyone's heads. We didn't see who bought us our first round but our first beers for a while and they tasted very sweet.

Steve Williams