Rowing: Bond after fifth world title

Hamish Bond
Hamish Bond
Otago's Hamish Bond has arrived in Amsterdam with the New Zealand team for the world championships beginning on Sunday.

Bond (28), a former Otago Boys' High School pupil and member of the North End club in Dunedin, will again team up with Eric Murray (32) in a bid for a fifth world title in the men's coxless pair.

They will also team up with coxswain Caleb Shepherd to contest the men's coxed pair in a new challenge for the formidable duo.

It would take a brave person to bet against Bond and Murray beating the other 23 crews for a fifth coxless pair crown.

They are unbeaten since teaming up in 2009, racking up 51 consecutive wins and most recently winning the world cup title in Lucerne last month.

They finished 9sec ahead of their nearest rivals, British pair James Foad and Matt Langridge.

Bond's younger brother, Alistair (25), will represent the Otago University club in the men's lightweight double scull. He will team up with Tauranga's Adam Ling in a strong 27-crew field.

Fiona Bourke (25) will also represent the Otago University club. She will contest the women's double scull with Tauranga's Zoe Stevenson.

The duo will be striving to go one better than silver at last year's world championship in South Korea.

The pair won gold at the Sydney world cup regatta earlier this year and managed silver in Lucerne last month.

Bourke competed in the London Olympics in 2012 in the women's quadruple scull, missing out on the A final after a breaking an oar in the repechage.

Mahe Drysdale (35) and Emma Twigg (27) are also in good form heading into the championships.

Drysdale will be seeking a sixth world title in the men's single sculls. He has won gold in two world cup regattas this year, including in Lucerne last month.

Twigg has won the women's single sculls at all three world cups this year.

She won silver in the world championships last year and collected bronze in 2010-11.

Rowing New Zealand high performance manager Alan Cotter said he was pleased with the team's progress this year.

''The training block since the Lucerne world cup has gone well and crews have got some good training in.

''The crews are set to peak in Amsterdam and performance is critical, especially as we are just one year out from Olympic qualification and just two years out from [the] Rio [Olympics].''


New Zealand rowing
The team
 •Women: Single scull, Emma Twigg; lightweight double scull, Julia Edward, Sophie MacKenzie; coxless pair, Rebecca Scown, Louise Trappitt; double scull, Zoe Stevenson, Fiona Bourke; coxless four, Kerri Gowler, Grace Prendergast, Kelsey Bevan, Kayla Pratt; quad, Erin-Monique O'Brien, Lucy Spoors, Georgia Perry, Sarah Gray.

 •Men: Single scull, Mahe Drysdale; coxless pair, Hamish Bond, Eric Murray; coxed pair, Hamish Bond, Eric Murray, Caleb Shepherd; lightweight double scull, Alistair Bond, Adam Ling; double scull, Robbie Manson, Karl Manson; quad, Chris Harris, Nathan Flannery, John Storey, Jade Uru; lightweight coxless four, Curtis Rapley, James Lassche, Peter Taylor, James Hunter.

 - by Robert Van Royen

 

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