Rowing: Fifth NZ crew qualify for Athens

7.35am

Everything has happened in a rush for Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles, who were paired together for the first time in a rowing boat only last October.

Today, they qualified in the women's pair for the Olympic Games in August, lifting to five the number of crews New Zealand will have on the water in Athens.

Haigh and Coles booked their Athens berth by finishing second in their final at the Olympic qualifying regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland.

They were third with 500m remaining before a flying finish saw them pass Ukraine and finish one boat length behind the strong Bulgarian pair of Milka Tancheva and Anna Chuk.

They recorded a time of seven minutes 15.06 seconds, more than 10sec clear of the third-placed Australians.

A top-two finish in the five-boat final was needed to qualify for Athens.

New Zealand had earlier qualified boats for Athens in the women's single, women's double, men's four and men's pair.

Haigh, 21, and Coles, 32, will now join New Zealand's other Games crews in Switzerland, where they will train ahead of a regatta in Amsterdam next month before heading to Belgium to wrap up their Games preparation.

Coles, who missed selection for the Sydney Games four years ago, expressed relief her 2004 campaign was more successful.

"It's awesome. I'm over the moon," she said.

The partnership of Coles and Haigh has worked almost seamlessly since they first shared a boat last October.

They finished second in the B final at a World Cup regatta in Germany last month, where most of their rivals in Athens appeared.

Coles said their build-up had gone to plan.

"Even though we were brought together quite late as a pair, I think our build-up has gone incredibly smoothly.

"Everything we needed to happen has happened, we've knocked off the little milestones we've needed to achieve and we've worked really hard.

"We work really well together and for me it's been a dream run."

- NZPA