KAYAKING/ ROWING: It was all about bragging rights, and in the end the winners took up the opportunity to do just that.

“We are the new Oarsome Foursome,” proclaimed David Smith, one of the members of the K4 gold medal team who managed to hold off a fast-finishing men’s rowing four to win the inaugural race on Melbourne’s Yarra River.

“It just shows we are the fastest boat in Australia, it’s as simple as that,” Tate Smith said.

“We got off the line fastest, we probably had the fastest top speed out there. I was surprised how quick we did get out of the blocks, I thought they might have been a bit quicker.”

Of course, the bragging is done (mostly) in jest. But over 500 metres, with an Olympic gold medal team going up against the second fastest rowing four in the world, there was real fascination over who would be quickest.

As expected, the K4 crew of Murray Stewart, Jacob Clear, David Smith and Tate Smith were quickest out of the blocks. Post race the rowing crew of Alex Lloyd, Josh Dunkley-Smith, Will Lockwood and Spencer Turin conceded that’s where the race was lost.

In a startling post-race admission, David Smith said his crew would have been happy to race the rowers over 750 metres.

“We’re not sure how it came to be 500 metres,” he said.

“Our original thought was we’d do it over 750, which we thought would make it closer. But the rowers came back and said let’s do it over 500. They must have been confident enough they’d get over us in the end.”

Which is news to the rowers. When asked why they didn’t opt for the 750 metres, they said “We didn’t have a choice! We were told it was over 500.”

Minor detail for the K4 crew, who are breathing a sigh of relief tonight.

“It was really important for us to win, because we issued the challenge,” Murray Stewart said.

“It would have been a bit embarrassing if we’d put it out there and then lost the race.”

And maybe they can put their victory down to thorough preparation. For the K4, no studying videos and the like of their opponents.

“We wikipediad their fastest times,” said David Smith.

Not surprisingly the rowers have indicated they want a rematch, probably over a longer distance, and maybe in Queensland where the K4 spend a lot of their time.

Ross Solly