3 Sep 2016

Murray, Bond hesitant on another Olympic season

3:40 pm on 3 September 2016

Double-Olympic gold medal winning rowers Eric Murray and Hamish Bond say they have yet to decide whether they will continue rowing together.

Hamish Bond, left, and Eric Murray celebrate with their gold medals on the podium after wining the Men's Pair Final of the Rowing events of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Lagoa Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 11 August 2016.

Hamish Bond and Eric Murray with New Zealand's first gold of the Games. Photo: AFP

The pair won gold at Rio this year, adding to their win in the London 2012 Olympics and several other international races.

They have until November to decide whether they will try to win a third gold medal at the 2020 Olympics.

There are reports Murray may retire while Bond may switch to the single sculls.

Speaking this morning, Bond said they would spend the next two months discussing what they would do next.

"What we have to do is work out what excites us and motivates us the most. If we're not excited by the prospect of getting up and training and pursuing a goal then it's just not going to happen.

"If we're doing it just for the sake of, or because someone else thinks you should or something like that then you're going to fall short."

Murray said they had to sit down and think about what they were going to do for the next four years.

"It's not going to be just 'oh well, we'll do it for 12 months'."

"You've got to sit there and go 'right, four years, how is this four years going to look'."

"And in that time we said 'well, we need to do the singles on occasions', Hamish had thrown the idea of 'well, let's have a go at the cox pair."

Murray said he needed to talk to his family and decide if the time had come when he should do more for them.

-RNZ