A flying start to their European campaign in Germany where
they snatched eight medals, including five golds, has left
the New Zealand rowing team bubbling with confidence.
Lightweight single sculler Duncan Grant won his event on
Saturday and the gold rush began in last night's (NZtime)
final session.
Single sculler Mahe Drysdale, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond in
the pairs, Emma-Jane Feathery and Rebecca Scown in the
women's pairs and the lightweight double scull of Storm Uru
and Peter Taylor all won.
The podium finishes came through Matthew Trott and Nathan
Cohen, silver in the double sculls, Emma Twigg, second in the
women's single sculls and the women's quadruple sculls crew
of Genevieve Armstrong, Louise Trappit, Sarah Barnes and
Harriet Austin who scored a bronze.
It was multiple world champion Drysdale's first appearance at
a major regatta since his brave row to bronze at the Olympic
Games in Beijing last August.
He trailed Briton Alan Campbell through the first half of the
race before powering home to win in seven minutes 00.45
seconds. It was exactly 3.5sec clear of Campbell, with
Olympic champion Olaf Tufte of Norway more than 5sec down in
third.
"It went really well and according to plan. I held back on
the first 1000m and then did my usual push on the second
half," Drysdale said.
"I am feeling really good and feeling very confident to go
into the next nine weeks...
there is a lot of racing coming up and this was a good way to
start." It was a successful return to Munich for Murray and
Bond, who were part of the world champion men's four crew
there two years ago.
They led from the outset in the pair final, finishing two
lengths clear of British rivals Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs
Hodge.
Less heralded are the women's pair of Feathery and Scown, who
also took control from the outset and held off a strong
finish from Li Tong and Li Meng of China to prevail by half a
boat length.
Feathery was delighted to be able perform on the
international stage.
"It was a very good opportunity to submit our combination
here.
"As things have been going good at home, the challenge was
now to appear in an international competition and we are very
happy about the result," she said.
Uru and Taylor dominated their final, finishing nearly 3sec
clear of the Italian crew.
Trott and Cohen nearly picked up a sixth gold for New Zealand
but they were overpowered in the second half by Germans
Stephan Krueger and Eric Knittel.
Likewise, Twigg couldn't match the class of Czech Republic
veteran Mirka Knapkova, who won by nearly 10sec.
"I seemed to be keeping up with Mirka up to 1000m but then
she started moving away from me," Twigg said.
"I'm still very pleased with the result, however, as it's
hard to get off the plane and compete.
"New Zealand are doing well at their first world cup so I'm
happy about that." The New Zealand crews are all scheduled to
compete at the third and final World Cup event in Lucerne in
three weeks, followed by the world championships in Poznan,
Poland from August 23-30.
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