Louisa Wall: Rowers feed off team-mates' golden successes

A few years ago, when I was studying for a diploma in sport and recreation in Hamilton, some New Zealand rowers, Rob Hamill among them, were on the course.
I went to some of their gym sessions and heard about their early rises and workouts on the water. It was plain to see they were incredibly dedicated and their training was exhausting.

It's a tough sport that requires huge amounts of time and a strong, focused mind to ride out the pain.

So I want to thank New Zealand's golden rowers for their contribution to making us all feel so good about being New Zealanders this past week.

At first the four gold medals at the world championships in Gifu, Japan, seemed unbelievable. But after hearing the stories from the team, who all seemed to inspire one another in succession and had a drafted goal to be the best rowing nation in the world, their success is not so surprising.

First up was men's single sculler Mahe Drysdale, who five months ago fractured a vertebra after a collision with a water skier on Lake Karapiro while out training. The injury made him dig deeper as he prepared for an event that he has only recently specialised in.

His role-model and inspiration was Sydney Olympic single scull champion Rob Waddell.

It seems that success engenders success. May this legacy continue.

What an inspiration Drysdale provided and how amazing it must have been for women's pair Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles, who were in the starting blocks, to hear the playing of the national anthem as he had his medal presentation.

The prediction for Nicky and Juliette was silver, with the Australians tagged as the favourites, but they dug deeper. Again imagine the inspiration for the men's pair of Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater, who followed next, and the Olympic double sculls champions Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.

The Evers-Swindells needed little external inspiration though, as they were incredibly focused after being beaten at their last World Cup encounter at Lucerne in July by the Bulgarian pairing of Rumyana Neykova and Miglena Markova.

The Evers-Swindells didn't just win - they won commandingly.

Four anthems in a row.

I hope the men's four of Donald Leach, Carl Meyer, Steve Cottle and Eric Murray, who finished sixth in their final, will be inspired to train harder and prepare better so that they can one day hear the anthem played for them.

So congratulations to world champion coach Dick Tonks. You and your team have produced an amazing group of athletes who are creating an inspirational environment in which commitment and dedication seem to guarantee success.

I love the fact our rowers are not satisfied with this lot.

The will to win and to make the boat go faster is more evident than ever.

From the origins of whale boat racing in the 1830s to the first rowing club being formed in Christchurch in 1861 to the establishment of the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association on March 16, 1887, we have a history of preparing to perform with distinction, whether for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 or lodging a bid to host the 2010 world championships at Lake Karapiro.

Imagine that coupled with the New Zealand Rugby Union's bid to stage the 2011 World Cup. What a wonderful few years it will be.

* Louisa Wall is a former New Zealand rugby and netball representative