Australian women reprimanded

The Australian women's eight have been reprimanded for a breach of team protocol over an ugly war of words between crew members after one quit rowing three quarters of the way through the Olympic final.

"They certainly understand as a group that there have been breaches of our team guidelines which say team members shouldn't talk disparagingly about other team members," said Australian Olympic chief John Coates yesterday.

Australian eight rower Sally Robbins, who quit pulling early, has triggered heated national debate with even Prime Minister John Howard having his say.

The 23-year-old Robbins collapsed with exhaustion with about 500 metres remaining in the women's final, won by Romania, and could not continue despite the fury of her team-mates.

Coates told a news conference in Athens that the crew members were summoned to a meeting yesterday.

"I think they have showed great maturity in the approach to our meeting this morning," he said.

Coates said none of the crew had been individually sanctioned.

At an emotional second news conference involving eight of the nine crew members, including Robbins, team members said they had patched up their differences and expressed regret at their outbursts. "I have to say that our reactions were very strong after what happened," said crew captain Julia Wilson.

"We were very emotional and it's very unfortunate what happened."

"We are nine people who work together, we are all part of a crew," added Catriona Oliver.

"It didn't go to plan, but we are not punching and screaming at each other. We're Olympians and Australians."

Robbins had slumped in her seat during the race before Wilson tried to prop her upright and asked her to resume rowing.

The Australians were third halfway through Sunday's race and ended up last. She was immediately dubbed "Lay-down" Sally by one newspaper.

Anxiety problem

Robbins said she did not know precisely what made her stop rowing, but that it probably came down to anxiety - a problem which has stopped her in the past.

Robbins told Australia television on Monday that her team-mates had threatened to throw her off the boat.

"Yeah, they did. I didn't say anything back because I didn't know what to say. I was stunned myself," said Robbins, who sobbed into her mother's shoulder during the interview.

Howard tried to calm tensions in the sports-mad nation yesterday. He told Australia television: "I'm sorry it's happened.

"I don't think it's fair of the prime minister to be commenting one way or the other. My only advice to teams on an occasion like this is to bind together and to close ranks.

"I'm not taking sides, but it's always regrettable and it's tough and there's a lot of pressure."