Rowing: Rowers ready for world's best

By PETER JESSUP

New Zealand's Olympic rowers leave for Europe this week having done plenty of hard work but not knowing where that places them in the world rankings.

They will find that out in Vienna and Lucerne over the next month at the second and third of the World Cup regattas, with the latter the last chance to qualify for Sydney 2000.

The coxless four and single sculling partners Rob and Sonia Waddell have already bettered the Sydney requirement and are looking at Europe as a testing ground. But double-scull sisters Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell and men's pair Steve Westlake and Bryce Mael, and the women's eight, will be there to qualify. They go off the back of a three-year programme that Rowing NZ chief executive Mike Stanley believes has this team better prepared than any before it.

They leave computers full of records on everything from body fat content to lactic acid blood counts, to heart rates, gym results, practice times and race results.

"All have very strong chances," Stanley said when rating the crews' hopes in Europe.

There are three Sydney qualifying spots open for teams in the women's double sculls and two each in the men's pair and women's eight.

"They've had the best that we can give them in sports science and medicine. They're injury free, they've done the hard work and the boat speeds are good."

The bulk of the competitors have been living and working at Lake Karapiro for the past two years. They have done hundreds of lengths of the lake, developing technique, strength and endurance, and now want to transfer that into speed on the racecourse.

The aim in Europe is to find exactly where they are in world terms, to identify any weaknesses in race technique, and to review and repair deficiencies.

Coxless four coach Brian Hawthorne believes he can still find improvement in his charges, Dave Schaper, Toni Dunlop, Rob Hellstrom and Scott Brownlee.

"They're an experienced group and they're performing consistently, with little improvements in the training data profile coming all the time," he said.

"We've had intra-squad regattas and a few people have been going quite quickly."

With limited rest after travelling to Vienna, Hawthorne is looking at that regatta as a "throwaway," but qualifying that by saying: "We don't expect to be that bad."

The last international measure they have is from the 1999 world championships in St Catharines, Canada, where they ranked fourth.

"We're looking to move on from Lucerne, to get better for Sydney rather than leave it in Lucerne."

The crews will return to New Zealand in mid-July before they set up camp in Brisbane for the run-up to the games.

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