Rowing: Bond and Murray pairing again proves to be case of men against the buoys

New Zealand rowing Men's Pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray. File photo / Brett Phibbs

Next to putting Moses in a skiff, no one parts water in the rowing world as consistently or successfully as Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.

They swept to a sixth-straight men's pair world championship, trouncing their nearest opponents by 6.52s on France's Lake Aiguebelette in September, a margin which painted a picture of men-versus-buoys.

Their world record of consecutive wins at international regattas extended to 21, including 61 race wins. A defence of their Olympic title next year at Rio would confirm them as the sport's greatest coxless pair, if they're not there already.

The only remaining challengers could be Britain's Sir Matthew Pinsent and Sir Steven Redgrave, who won consecutive Olympic golds at Barcelona and Atlanta and four-straight world championships from 1991-95.

Potential Rio glory awaits, as it does for so many New Zealand crews. Joining the pair on top of the podium were double scullers Zoe Stevenson and Eve Macfarlane, lightweight double scullers Julia Edward and Sophie MacKenzie, and non-Olympic lightweight single scullers Adam Ling and Zoe McBride.

World championship medals (five gold, three silver and one bronze) showered in, but the improvement of the men's and women's eights differentiated this year's campaign from anything over the past decade, or indeed the past 32 years.

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

The efforts of this year's crews took the sport into uncharted territory. A women's eight has never qualified for the Olympics, let alone earned a medal (silver) at a pinnacle event.

The fact they'll be joining the men, who were edged by 0.13s to fourth by the Netherlands, highlights how far the taxpayer-funded centralised programme has come.

New Zealand qualified nine crews out of 14 for Rio and four others look realistic next year, especially with the return of former world champion single sculler Emma Twigg.

The only event in which New Zealand finished more than two places outside automatic Olympic qualification was the men's coxless four.