Look quickly at a photo of Thomas Murray and James Hunter, the New Zealand men's pair that burst onto the international rowing stage this summer, and the resemblance between them and the Kiwi pair that dominated the last two Olympic cycles is, well, kind of hard to miss.
Bowman Thomas Murray has the facial hair – the beard or sometimes just the moustache, and long hair - that Eric Murray rocked; and Hunter has the thin nose and sharp profile of Hamish Bond, his predecessor in the stroke seat of the all familiar black boat with black oars contrasting the white fern leaf on the blades.
And look again after reading the results of their races. Murray and Bond topped the columns on every race for eight years - including both World and Olympic championships. Thomas Murray and James Hunter closed out their World Cup season with a decisive, impressive win in Lucerne, and won their heat on Sunday in Sarasota.
They are the newcomers - (sort of, as Thomas Murray rowed in the Kiwi men's eight in Rio, and Hunter rowed in the NZ light men's four from 2013 through Rio, and is now rowing open) - in the New Zealand pair. And they are rowing in what will be an incredibly difficult, possibly overshadowing legacy and being compared to a pair of shoes rowing by fans everywhere. They've done it to themselves when training and racing.
"It's pretty challenging sometimes, I guess" Hunter said Sunday after winning the heat of their event and moving into the semifinal. "It's either people comparing us to them, or us comparing ourselves to them.
"We're always comparing our splits at 32 to their splits at 32 because that's what they went at, and wondering if you're going to get there. So, it's mentally challenging. And then we've got the Murray in the bow seat, so yea, we get a bit of that from the media," said Hunter.
"It brought a bit of pressure initially," Murray said of the comparisons to the past pair, not to mention the last name - no relation, Murray assures, just coincidence. "But I think we're passed it now. We've proven what we can do and we're just trying to improve on that.
"We knew it was coming," he added. "And we were respectful. We knew that there were big shoes to fill. But it wasn’t put on us too heavily. It's just the same as having the legacy of any other pair, it doesn’t mean anything to our results."
It might be tough to be them, but it is also hard to feel bad for them that they might carry any extra pressure into a race. They appear very capable of picking up where Murray and Bond left off before retiring, with Bond switching to cycling this year and possibly a new Olympic adventure.
But if there is a suggestion that the rest of the men's pair field will just be racing to see who can finish second, look at the entry list again. The names Martin and Valent Sinkovic will catch your eye. That's the Croatian brother combination that dominated the men's double scene through the Rio cycle right to the top of the podium, with world records along the way.
The Sinkovic brothers made their decision to switch boat classes to the pair before their successful run at gold in Rio (or that's what they have said), and announced the change with a series of enticing tweets and pictures of their new oars lying next to the new ones on the dock, as row2k reported in November: A Pair of Huge Announcements (see the tweets below).
Now they are looking to be the top names in the pairs world throughout this next four years. It will make for good racing, and good press. They've got the results and the easy-going personalities to pull a few headlines their way.
Consider this answer to the question of whether their decision to switch into the pair have anything to do with the decision of Bond to move away from rowing and the end of Murray/Bond partnership.
"We made our decision before Rio," said Martin. "Maybe they dropped out because of us. Just kidding (laughs)."
Welcome to the new pairs rowing scene - it's full of personality, story lines and passionate rowing.
"It doesn't matter who it is because we enjoy rowing," Martin added. "I think we will stick with this to Tokyo. We enjoy it. It's different, and we really enjoy doing something different."
Tmrrw we'll release the decision about continuation of our professional career. It's time 4 some new challenges. Thank U all 4 your support. pic.twitter.com/RQuKquxQr4
— Sinkovic Brothers (@SinkovicBros) November 15, 2016
Hello FUTURE, we're becoming COXLESS #PAIR! We are counting on your support ?? #sinkovicbrothers pic.twitter.com/ZMg811mlC4
— Sinkovic Brothers (@SinkovicBros) November 16, 2016
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