KEY POINTS:
Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater delivered a resounding statement of intent with an emphatic performance in their heat of the coxless pair last night.
The 2005 world champions won convincingly, clocking 6min 41.65s and heading home Serbian pair Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic by a tick over 5s.
In the previous heat, formidable Australians Drew Ginn and Duncan Free won in .50s quicker. Given the New Zealanders' performance, Saturday's final - assuming there are no hiccups in Wednesday's semifinals - is shaping as a doozy.
"We wanted to stamp our mark," Twaddle said. "It's been a while since we've had a 2km race as such so there was a little uncertainty about where everyone else is. But we were pleased to lead out and hold everyone when we needed to."
Bridgewater believes they are about where they wanted to be at this stage.
"Our preparation's been brilliant. The last few weeks, when we came back from Europe was quite hard to get back into it after all the travel. But since then we've stepped up a notch and we're getting close to as fast as we're going to get, and that's quite exciting."
Twaddle said the rowers are relishing the Shunyi course. "It's really hot, with warm water so it does feel like the boat is running fast."
The win was one of five out of seven races for New Zealand and, while the quality of opposition was mixed, it was a strong start.
"We build off each others' success and it's a testament to the work, effort, funding and support that's gone into the last four years," Twaddle said. "It's something that snowballs and hopefully we can feed off that as we go through."
And any words of praise from head coach Dick Tonks?
"They're few and far between, but you definitely listen when he does open his mouth," Bridgewater said.
