New Zealand's Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown have struck
gold again. (REUTERS/Srdjan Zivulovic)
New Zealand women's pair Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown
have turned in a stunning performance to win gold in a photo
finish at the World Rowing Championships at Lake Bled in
Slovenia.
Trailing the outstanding Great Britain pair Helen Glover and
Heather Stanning for almost all of the race, the Kiwis took
the victory in the last couple of strokes to win by eight one
hundredths of a second.
Haigh and Scown, the reigning world champions, had looked
good in qualifying for the final, but the smart money was on
the British pair taking out the title.
The Kiwis trailed the Brits by half a second at the 1000m
mark and by a third of a second at the 1500m mark before
stealing it at the finish to win in 6min 58.16, with
Australia pair Sarah Tait and Kate Hornsey third in 7.03.98.
New Zealanders Graham Oberlain-Brown and James Lassche just
missed out on a medal in the final of the men's lightweight
pair's event.
The Kiwis, in lane one, shot out to an early lead but their
pacesetting took its toll and they faded to fourth behind
Great Britain, Italy and Germany.
Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan will tomorrow (Friday) get a
prime centre lane in which to defend their double sculls
title after easily winning their semi-final tonight.
The two New Zealanders were far too good for the rest of the
field and won with almost three seconds to spare over
Slovenia and France.
Cohen and Sullivan got into their work after narrowly
trailing the Estonian duo at the 500m mark. They were just
ahead of Slovenia at the halfway mark but powered away to win
in 6min 16.68sec.
Iztok Cop and Luka Spik delighted the home crowd by holding
on to second in 6.19.25, with Frenchmen Cedric Berrest and
Julien Bahain third in 6.19.74.
New Zealand's Duncan Grant comfortably qualified for
tomorrow's (Friday) final of the men's lightweight single
sculls.
Grant impressively won his semi-final in a time of 7min
08.87sec, beating Italy's Pietro Ruta (7.09.70) by half a
boat length, with Great Britain's Adam Freeman-Pask (7.12.28)
third.
Grant, a three-time world champion, was second behind
Freeman-Pask at the 500m mark before using a superior stroke
rate to pull away. At the halfway stage he led the Brit by
over two seconds, with Ruta making his move in the final
1000m.
The New Zealand men's eight finished a disappointing fourth
in their B final.
Nicholas Pusinelli, Tyson Williams, Adam Tripp, Tobias
Wehr-Candler, Ian Seymour, Sean O'Neill, Hamish Burson, David
Eade and Ivan Pavich had hoped to take out the race in order
to qualify directly for next year's London Olympics, but
could not recover from a slow start, although they did hold
second place in the final stages before fading. The Czech
Republic beat them to third on the line with New Zealand
three one-hundredths of a second behind.
Ukraine won the event in 5.36.72, with USA second in 5.38.93
and the Czech Republic third in 5.39.86. New Zealand were
fourth in 5.39.89.
The Kiwis had surprised many by qualifying for the final of
last year's event, couldn't repeat the feat after finishing
sixth in their semifinal.
Earlier tonight, New Zealander Daniel McBride finished fourth
in the AS men's single sculls semi-final.
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