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MUNICH - New Zealand's rowers broke new ground at world championships and Olympic level in Munich overnight while enhancing their reputation as world leaders in small boats.
A New Zealand record eight crews will race in Saturday's world championships finals on the Oberschleissheim course after they all finished in the top half of semifinals.
And to add to the joy in the New Zealand shed, at least seven boats will line up at Beijing in just under a year, surpassing the previous most this country has fielded at an Olympic Games.
Unless injuries or form strike hard, Rowing New Zealand selectors should name the rowers who starred today to fill the same seats at Beijing.
Yet more crews could join them at Beijing but they would have to be selected for a sudden-death regatta in Lucerne in June and then succeed there.
Today's results, achieved within a space of two hours, showed why New Zealand is rated among the pre-eminent nations for crews numbering one or two rowers. It came a day after the men's and women's eights crashed out in repechages.
Another single sculler has burst on the scene this year in Napier 20-year-old Emma Twigg who was a gutsy third in her semifinal.
A strong second half was the key for world under-23 champion Twigg. She held off fast-finishing Swede Frida Svensson while finishing within half a length of Belarussian defending champion Ekaterina Karsten and Bulgarian world record holder Rumyana Neykova.
"To have Frida chase me down to the line was pretty scary stuff but I held in there, I'm just elated," Twigg said.
"When I got off the water, I didn't realise how close the times were. To know that Karsten and Neykova, a couple of world's best, were right there was a great feeling.
"For the final they'll no doubt step it up another notch."
Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen were the other unexpected qualifiers yesterday, surging past Australia in the dying states to finish third.
The win also allowed the large New Zealand supporters' group bragging rights over their Australian counterparts after both launched into fierce chanting during the race.
Earlier, an unwell Mahe Drysdale was pleased he was placed under no pressure to win his single sculls semifinal.
The two-time world champion was anxious to shake off a virus that struck yesterday, although it wasn't apparent in a dominant row as he held German Marcel Hacker at bay.
"Once I got out there, Hacker just didn't really bother about chasing too hard," Drysdale said.
"I really thought it was going to be a race right to the end and it surprised me when he let me go.
"It's one of those things, semifinals, you don't want to do too much or show your hand too early."
Other semifinal winners were the men's pair of Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater and men's four
Carl Meyer, James Dallinger, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond with both crews hitting the lead early in races which didn't feature their main rivals for gold.
The two women's twosomes came home second.
Double scull twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell couldn't match China's Qin Li and Liang Tian in the closing stages and will face an enormous fight to topple them and win their fourth world championships gold medal.
Likewise, the pair of Nicola Coles and Juliette Haigh face a stiff task on Saturday in a high-quality final.
The only New Zealander who couldn't celebrate a ticket to Beijing was Duncan Grant, whose lightweight single sculls class isn't an Olympic one.
He won convincingly today and his aim on Saturday will be to go better than the breakthrough bronze medal he won last year, a viable target given his form.
- NZPA
