JAMES CRACKNELL has confirmed that he will be taking a year out of rowing because of a lack of desire for international competition. The question is, will the man indeed return to rowing in 12 months’ time to begin a quest to win a third Olympic gold medal?

Cracknell is undecided. However, Jürgen Grobler, the Great Britain head coach, who was praised so graciously by Cracknell at yesterday’s announcement, must be hoping that the 32-year-old will come back, at least for the 2006 World Championships, which will be staged at Eton, if not for the 2008 Games in Beijing.

With Pinsent, Cracknell’s long-time crew-mate, announcing his retirement today, it would be helpful to have at least one experienced rower available to give continuity and inspiration to a new generation. Cracknell will spend next year taking part in other sports: he has set himself the target of breaking three hours at the Flora London Marathon in April and will also compete in the London Triathlon.

He will continue to exercise on a rowing machine with Alex Partridge, who is back in training after a collapsed lung forced him to withdraw from the coxless four for the Games in Athens. “Jürgen does trust me that I will stay in shape,” Cracknell said. “He wants me rejuvenated.”

On the way back from Sydney in 2000, when Cracknell had been in the coxless four that secured Sir Steve Redgrave his fifth gold medal, Pinsent his third and Cracknell his first, Grobler had told him that he wanted to form a new coxless pair of Pinsent and Cracknell for the Athens Olympics.

This worked until the pair finished fourth at the 2003 World Championships, so Grobler changed selection this year, putting them into the four. “I made certain that I didn’t fly with Jürgen on the way back from Athens,” Cracknell said, smiling.

Cracknell is adamant that if he returns in a year’s time, he will row on the stroke side. When he switched sides to row on his left after 2000, he described the experience as rather like a right-handed man learning to brush his teeth with the wrong hand. He said: “It is not as instinctive as I would have liked it. It would be easier for me on stroke side.” The only boat that he would not consider for a comeback is a single scull.

Apart from athletic interests, Cracknell will continue his media activities, both writing and commentating on events such as the 2005 Boat Race, for which ITV has secured the rights. Cracknell recognises the mental, rather than the physical, difficulty of returning in a year’s time for a sport that demands constant focus and five hours of training a day. In the winter of 2002-03, he struggled for motivation and discussed the problem with Grobler because the 2004 Olympic Games seemed a long way in the future.

Although Cracknell intensely enjoys the actual physical experience of rowing, he may well find that a return in 12 months’ time, with three years to go before Beijing, is not sufficiently alluring to disturb a new lifestyle. He has a wife, Bev, and young son, Croyde, and would have to interrupt some of the career that he will be building up over the next year.

The odds must surely be against him returning to the sport that he has graced with such good humour, eloquence and outstanding athleticism for so long.