Hollard's Ramon Di Clemente rows for a medal in Beijing final on Saturday

Now that South Africa’s options for a medal have dwindled dramatically, our Hollard-sponsored rowing champions are finally getting the attention they deserve after they successfully battled their way through to the final on Wednesday which will be raced on Saturday.

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Ramon Di Clemente (left) saw the final slipping away from him as a Canadian pair crabbed sideways into his lane in the same way Canadians did at Athens, nearly putting them out of the running for that final but they ended up winning a bronze when the Canadians were disqualified for their infraction. “I thought Oh No! not again – but we gave it our all and they didn’t interfere. We rowed ourselves right out of our boots to get make it into the final,” he said after the semi-final on Wednesday on a hot day and after a very tough race. His partner, Shaun Keeling (right in picture) suffered from the heat but nevertheless gave it his all and earned high praise from Ramon.

Watching the semi-final in Beijing was SA rowing Olympian Paolo Cavalieri, former CEO of Hollard and now chairman of Etana. Hollard has sponsored the pair for eight years and without their sponsorship the rowing pair would not be in Beijing today giving South Africa a shot at a medal on Saturday: “I know from experience that a semi final is the meanest, toughest dog fight you can find anywhere in the world and on a very hot day they pulled it off. Now perhaps South Africans can turn their attention to rowing for medal chances at this Olympics because we’re running out of options. Our guys have until Saturday to recover from a very tough race so they can put it all in again for that final.”

Christo Crafford is in Beijing opening an office for Hollard there. He says being in Beijing when Hollard’s rowers are competing is a thrill for him. After Ramon and Shaun made it through to the final he said: “At last the South Africans here in Beijing have something to smile about. There are quite a few of us here and we were beginning to lose heart. But the rowers have brought a smile back to our faces and there is huge excitement buzzing about rowing … at last.

“I read a poll last week – on an SA online news publication – that put rowing way down the list of sports which South Africans thought were our best chances of getting a medal at this Olympics. I think if they ran the poll today the results would be very different. I think this result might at last establish rowing as an Olympic sport in the minds of South Africans – as it is in so many other countries.”