Kiwi rowers make giant leap at world champs

New Zealand's rowers celebrate after winning the second place of the women's eight. Photo / AFP

Apologies to Neil Armstrong but with a few small oar strokes, New Zealand's rowing programme took a giant leap in the sport last night on the waters of Lake Aiguebelette, France.

As expected, the world championship medals (five gold, three silver and one bronze) showered in like they'd hit the jackpot at the pokies, but it was the performance of the men's and women's eights which differentiated this year's campaign from anything over the past decade, or indeed the last 32 years.

That was when New Zealand last qualified an eight for the Olympic Games after the men's crew defended their world championship in Duisburg, Germany.

The efforts of this year's standard bearers took the sport into uncharted territory. A women's eight has never qualified for the Olympics, let alone earned a medal (silver) at a world championships. The fact they'll be joining the men, who were edged by 0.13s to fourth by the Netherlands in their final, highlights how far the taxpayer-funded centralised programme has come.

It's easy to refer to the generic 'New Zealand eights' but Rebecca Scown, Kerri Gowler, Grace Prendergast, Genevieve Behrent, Kelsey Bevan, Ruby Tew, Emma Dyke, Kayla Pratt, Stephen Jones, Brook Robertson, Alex Kennedy, Joe Wright, Isaac Grainger, Shaun Kirkham, Michael Brake, Tom Murray and coxswains Frances Turner and Caleb Shepherd deserve individual mention for the magnitude of their feat in the sport's blue riband discipline. While the bouquets are being flung, coaches Dave Thompson (women) and Noel Donaldson (men) also deserve acknowledgment.
The decision by the Rowing New Zealand board to back both crews, regardless of personnel, to Rio and Tokyo in 2020 is a demonstration of foresight already reaping benefits.

There was no sense of simply racing for Rio qualification.

"It's been a massive couple of days," Robertson, the men's seven seat, said. "We're pretty damn happy. We went out to stamp our authority and win the race.

"If we did better than sixth [to qualify] that was always the goal but we went out to medal and gave it a real good crack. We weren't going to play it safe."

"It's definitely something you can get trapped into," Pratt, the women's bow seat, said of the Olympic conundrum. "I did find myself thinking 'all you need is not to get last' but, to be honest, we believed we could get on the podium.

"Everyone got on so well. There was no extra energy wasted trying to make personalities work. It's a really cool vibe."

On the face of it, New Zealand is in a weaker position pre-Rio than pre-London with nine crews out of a possible 14 qualified, compared to 11 last time. However, that perception is deceptive.

Eights are the hardest boats to qualify with only seven spots available (five at the world championships and two at next year's 'regatta of death'). There are the added difficulties of a) having enough talent and b) co-ordinating it into a slick racing unit.

Nothing is easy getting boats selected for the Olympic Games but, in building terms, qualifying the eights is like putting the foundations in place; qualifying smaller boats is more like sorting the interior design.

Of the five boat classes yet to guarantee a Rio spot, New Zealand missed by one spot in the men's and women's quadruple sculls and by two spots in the lightweight men's double sculls. Each of those disciplines have two remaining spots available.

Presuming 2014 world champion Emma Twigg returns in the single sculls they would also have a decent chance of qualifying that boat.

The toughest task will be powering the men's coxless four, who finished five places outside automatic qualification.