Lynley Hannen and Nicola Payne claim Coxless Pairs Rowing Bronze, Seoul 1988
Lynley Hannen and Nicola Payne finished second in their heat, won the repecharge and were a comfortable third, behind Romania and Bulgaria, in the final. They rowed outstandingly in the final, their time of 7min 35.68s giving them a five-second cushion over the fourth-placed East Germans. That result revealed how much the New Zealanders had improved. They got to the Games because of a second placing in Lucerne, not long before the Olympics. In that race they were still 14 seconds behind the East Germans. To turn around that margin so quickly was a tribute to the New Zealand pair, and to their coach, Harry Mahon.