Rowing: British rower Innes goes 'aah' to Ipanema
By Angus MacSwan
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Like many before him, British rower Stewart Innes has been seduced by the charms of Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema Beach, although with a men’s pairs final ahead of him, he’s not indulging too much yet.
The British rowing team decided against staying in the Olympic athletes' village and instead set up camp in a hotel in Ipanema, the neighbourhood immortalized by the bossa nova song "Girl from Ipanema".
"It’s been brilliant actually," said Innes, who is himself tall and tanned, like the girl in the song. "Just to get away from it all, and its such a casual atmosphere down there."
He was speaking at the rowing venue at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon just after he and his partner Alan Sinclair, competing at their first Olympics, had secured a place in Thursday's final of the men’s pair.
"We are quite strict on diet and making sure we are not putting on too much weight because the food is fantastic. So we're controlling our intake of calories and just chilling out. But we’ve had a couple of walks on the beach."
So no caipirinhas and juicy steaks then?.
"We’ll wait for the second week for that, and I know Alan will go to town on those," he said.
They had no security problems, despite Rio's notorious crime rates, although they did not wear team colours on their walks, he said.
He also praised the rowing venue, which is surrounded by forested mountains, including Corcovado and its Christ the Redeemer statue.
"It’s an awesome place to row. It’s a little bit overwhelming in that everything around you is so big. When you get to a marker, you feel 'Oh, Christ the Redeemer is right there and I don’t think I've got any further away'."
Still, after the games, he is not hanging around to dance the samba but will be donning his Innes tartan kilt.
"I do a bit of Scottish dancing," he said. "When I’m finished in Rio I’m actually off to Scotland for a big dance."
(Reporting by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Bill Rigby)