Rowing: Bond, Murray lead gold rush

The world champion combination of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray were at their destructive best to land the men's pairs title at the World Cup rowing regatta at Lucerne, Switzerland overnight as New Zealand crews won four golds.

The duo were mightily impressive in their victory, but there were also golds for the world champion men's doubles sculls of Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan, the lightweight men's pair of Storm Uru and Peter Taylor and a breakthrough win for single sculler Emma Twigg.

New Zealand also claimed silvers in the women's pair and the men's single sculls and a surprise bronze for the women's quadruple sculls in the final World Cup regatta of the season.

Bond and Murray crushed their closest challengers, the British duo of Peter Reed and Andy Triggs Hodge, by over six seconds to secure a 13th straight triumph over the silver medallists at last year's world championships.

The reigning world champions were in a class of their own to cover the 2000 metres in six minutes 21.76 seconds with the British pair second in 6min 28.16secs and will head to world championships in Bled, Slovenia later this year as heavy favourites to capture their third world title in succession.

The Brits won the opening World Cup regatta in Munich, Germany in the absence of the New Zealand duo, while Bond and Murray won in Hamburg after the runners-up at the world championships last year failed to travel after an E.coli outbreak.

The race had been tipped to be a close affair after the British crew had won all their races leading into the final, but they made a shocking start to trail the field after 500m and, despite picking off other crews over the distance, were well adrift of the New Zealand boat at the finish.

Twigg, the bronze medallist at the world championships on Lake Karapiro last year, powered away at the start and used her lane to good effect in the blustery conditions to lead at every mark and head home a star-studded lineup which included six-time world champion and double Olympic gold medallist Ekaterina Karsten from Belarus.

The Hawke's Bay 24-year-old tired over the closing stages, but had enough left in the tank to hold off China's Xiuyun Zhang with Karsten, the World Cup winner, back in fourth.

Cohen and Sullivan were sluggish out of the blocks in the double sculls and at the 500m-mark they were down in fifth well adrift of the German crew in the lead, and had only gained one place by the halfway stage. But a withering last burst which saw them lift their stroke rating to 44 and pick up three places in the closing 500m saw them claim gold 1.31secs ahead of the tiring Germans.

The 2009 world champion lightweight men's pair of Uru and Taylor, led at every mark apart from the opening 500m and managed to comfortably hold off the fast finishing Italian crew to win by 2.25secs.

Men's single sculler Mahe Drysdale had the misfortune to draw the fifth lane which was one of the worst affected by the tough headwind, but showed some pleasing form to trail home world champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic.

The British women's pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning used a powerful burst out of the blocks to get one over their New Zealand rivals Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh. The Brits, second at the world championships last year behind the New Zealanders, blasted away from the start to hold a 3.82secs lead after 500m, but Scown and Haigh powered home in the final quarter to narrow the gap to 0.66secs at the finish.

The Dick Tonks-coached women's quadruple sculls crew of Fiona Bourke, Louise Trappitt, Sarah Gray and Even Macfarlane grabbed third after a strong performance to finish behind winners Germany and world champions Great Britain.

The men's four of Ben Hammond, Chris Harris, James Dallinger and Carl Meyer shared fifth in their final, the men's quadruple sculls of Robbie Manson, Matt Trott, John Storey and Steve Cottle, ranked 10th in the world, will be happy with their regatta despite finishing last in their final behind a dominant German crew. The women's double sculls combination of Fi Paterson and Anna Reymer, also ranked 10th in the world, will be similarly satisfied with sixth spot.

The women's lightweight double of Louise Ayling and Lucy Strack won their B final while the men's eight, have work to do if their want to get to the London Olympics next year, could only manage fourth in their B final.

- NZPA