Rough conditions conspired against University of Otago rower Fergus Fauvel in the men's heavyweight single final at the world universities championships in Hungary at the weekend.
Fauvel showed great promise during the heats but was unable to find his rhythm in the final and finished in fifth place.
Elyse Fraser, also from the University of Otago, was the only New Zealand female competing this year.
She was up against some highly competitive scullers from around the world.
She missed a place in the A final but won the B final in a time of 7 minutes 45.82 seconds.
New Zealand's most successful crew was the men's lightweight double of Armin Svoboda and Andrew O'Connor (both from the University of Canterbury), who placed third in the A final.
Svoboda and O'Connor led from the start with a very fast first 500m.
But as the race went on, the other crews began to close the gap.
The New Zealand double held on to the lead through the 1000m mark but Italy surged past in the last 500m and Germany grabbed second place by 0.61 seconds.
The men's heavyweight double of Matthew Glenn and Richard Harrison (University of Waikato) placed second in the B final.
