Rowing: Pairs battle, Waddell cruises into Olympic final

7.20pm - By DANIEL GILHOOLY

UPDATED - New Zealand have qualified two boats for the Olympic finals with contrasting third place finishes in semifinals at the Schinias course in Athens.

Women's single sculler Sonia Waddell repeated her Sydney achievement of four years ago by cruising through her semifinal, but the men's pair of Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater were pushed all the way.

Double sculling sisters Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell had already qualified for Saturday's finals and there was the prospect of two more crews joining them later today, with the men's four to contest a semifinal and women's pair to race a repechage for the final.

Twaddle and Bridgewater were the fastest qualifiers through heats on Saturday but found the pace had stepped up considerably today, only just scraping into the top three needed to qualify.

They were beaten home by gold medal favourite Australian Drew Ginn and Jame Tomkins and the Croatian crew and just managed to hold off a fast-finishing Great Britain by 0.58sec.

Racing with a light tailwind, the New Zealanders' were fourth through the opening half of the race, but surged past a tiring Italian duo before withstanding the late Great Britain charge.

Twaddle and Bridgewater's semifinal was the fastest, seeing them qualify third-quickest overall for the final.

Waddell was far more comfortable in reaching her second Olympic final, although she had to row into a slight headwind.

She was well off the pacesetters in her semifinal, German defending Olympic champion Ekaterina Karsten and Bulgarian two-time world champion Rumyana Neykova, but was equally clear of her rivals behind her by the finish line.

Karsten's winning time of seven minutes 31.91 seconds was 10.09sec clear of Waddell, who was considerably quicker in her repechage yesterday. She was the fifth-fastest qualifier overall for the six-woman final.

The Cambridge sculler was happy to advance after concerns that her repechage which had been twice postponed to yesterday afternoon may have left her drained.

"I knew it would take a little bit out of me," she said.

"I still wasn't as sharp as usual through the middle stages but I think I felt better today than I have in my two earlier races."

Waddell was sixth and last in the final at the Sydney Games and wouldn't offer a prediction of her chances on Saturday.

"There are six of us there and it's an Olympic final so it's what happens on the day. It should be an exciting race."

- NZPA