Rowing: Coach not worried over flat four's performance

New Zealand rowing head coach, Steve Gunn, is confident a fully fit coxless four can battle back from their subdued opening performance at the Olympic regatta on Penrith Lake.

The quartet of Rob Hellstrom, Toni Dunlop, Scott Brownlee and Dave Schaper took the eighth of nine automatic semifinals spots after a flat first effort partially blamed on illness.

Dunlop, rowing at No 3, fell ill with food poisoning contracted in the team village in the run-up to Sunday's first day of racing.

While New Zealand medical staff were confident Dunlop would have fully recovered for Thursday's semifinals, they are carefully monitoring his progress.

"He's been a little unlucky. The doctors aren't concerned. There's an infection. It's just something he's eaten - he's the only New Zealander in the village to get it," Gunn said.

Unable to fire on all cylinders, the New Zealanders, silver medallists in July's World Cup meeting in Lucerne, were 12s behind Britain with a time of 6m 13.60s.

They initially appeared to be the last qualifiers, but a photo finish confirmed that they had just held off Germany.

Italy and Australia were also significantly faster than the New Zealanders but Gunn is not panicking.

"If you're one per cent off your best, that's a huge difference," he said of Dunlop's illness. "You can only take one race at a time. It's now up to the crews and coaches to get things right for that. We'll find out the true story at the semifinals."

While the four caused some anxiety, single scullers Rob and Sonia Waddell cruised through their heats to make the semifinals without needing to race in a repechage.

Gunn said qualifying was no surprise.

While the four were analysing the video of their race, double world champion Rob Waddell had few worries and would just indulge in some freshening up work before the semifinals.

"I'll just be maintaining that speed really," he said.

"I'm looking forward to feeling better and better as the week goes on as I have in other years."

- NZPA