Rowing: Coxless pairs in sizzling form at World Cup regatta

New coxless-pair combinations Emma Feathery and Rebecca Scown and Hamish Bond and Eric Murray were the headline acts as New Zealand won five golds, two silvers and one bronze in eight A finals at the World Cup regatta in Munich last night.

Feathery and Scown led all the way to win in 7min 24.58s from No 1 Chinese pair Teng Li and Meng Li, who crossed just .09s back.

Bond and Murray, part of the coxless four who won the world title two years ago, were convincing winners, leading from the start, to record 6:35.47, 2.71s ahead of the British pair.

The other gold medallists were double world lightweight single scull champion Duncan Grant, Olympic bronze medallist Mahe Drysdale and lightweight double scullers Storm Uru and Peter Taylor.

Grant signalled he was on track for another strong defence of his title in a non-Olympic class with victory in his A final. He clocked 7:06.35 and while he never got more than 2s clear of Czech Republic sculler Ondrej Luzek, always had the race under control.

"This was a new field with different people from last year so you never know what to expect," Grant said.

Drysdale moved clear at halfway to win his final in 7:00.45, 3.50s ahead of Britain's Alan Campbell, with Olympic champion Olaf Tufte of Norway third.

Uru and Taylor impressed, winning in 6:36.24, almost 3s clear of Italy.

There were silver medals for Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott in the double scull and single sculler Emma Twigg. Cohen and Trott finished 1.14s behind Germany's No 1 pair Stephen Krueger and Eric Knittel, who clocked 6:24.87.

Twigg trailed Czech Republic sculler Mirka Knapkova most of their final, Knapkova winning in 7:38.19, almost 9s ahead of Twigg.

Women's quad crew of Genevieve Armstrong, Louise Trappitt, Sarah Barnes and Harriet Austin won the bronze in 6:48.49, almost 10s behind winners Germany.