Rowing: Champions in hot form for London

Eric Murray and Hamish Bond win last night's final in Lucerne to remain unbeaten since 2009. Photo / Getty Images

The unshakeable grip Eric Murray and Hamish Bond have had on the pairs discipline since 2009 remains intact.

In their first World Cup regatta of the season, the duo won their final in Lucerne last night to reinforce their overwhelming favouritism for the Olympic Games gold in London in August. On top of that, Bond insisted there's more to come.

"We progressed through the regatta and from the heat, to the semifinal to the final, we got better and better, which is pleasing," he said. "And there's room for improvement as well. We're definitely not going to rest on our laurels on that performance. It was good, but by no means perfect."

Murray and Bond, unbeaten in their three years together, had to work for the win. They were fourth at the 500m mark on the 2000m course, second at halfway and took the lead on the third section, going on to win in 6min 24.04s.

Canadians Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen, silver medallists at the Beijing Olympics, were second in 6:26.77, with Greeks Nikolaos and Apostolos Gkountoulas third in 6:30.04.

When leading British pair Peter Reed and Andy Triggs Hodge, who had chased and failed to catch the New Zealanders in 14 successive cup and world championship races, gave up and moved into a formidable coxless four, it seemed Bond and Murray's toughest rivals had been seen off. However, Murray and Bond have insisted nothing would be taken for granted, and the Canadians rammed home that point.

Murray and Bond were the only winners for New Zealand after five-time world champion Mahe Drysdale was surprisingly beaten in a fiercely competitive men's single sculls by Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic.

There were silver medals for the lightweight double sculling combinations Storm Uru and Peter Taylor, and Louise Ayling and Julia Edward.

Uru and Taylor were toppled by French pair Stany Delayre and Jeremie Azou. Both crews had won their heats and semifinals, with the French winning the showdown in 6:22.78. New Zealand, bouncing back from a slow start, clocked 6:24.32.

Ayling and Edward, who set a world best time in their heat, were second all the way behind Chinese Dongxiang Xu and Wenyi Huang. The winning time of 7:04.14 was just .25s ahead of the New Zealanders.

Defending world champions Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown had to settle for third in their coxless pair final, behind strong British combination Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, and Americans Erin Cafaro and Eleanor Logan. Double scullers, Fi Patterson and Anna Reymer finished fifth in 7:00.45, in a race dominated by strong British pair Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger.

At least they made their A final, which is more than can be said for their male counterparts, two-time defending world champions Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan, who finished last in the B final.

* Defending world K1 200m canoeing champion Lisa Carrington won silver in her Olympic Games discipline in Duisburg, Germany last night. Carrington clocked 40.847 seconds, but was pipped by .096s by three-time Olympic champion Natasa Douchev-Janics from Hungary.

- With AP